Why You Should Never Have A Little Sister
by xSymnia
Summary: Ulrich's sister comes to town and instantly causes trouble with her brother and the gang. XANA doesn't help either; there's a new monster that if destroyed, will kill her.
1. Arrival

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

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Charles De Gaulle Airport was almost deserted when a large jet plane landed on the runway in the early hours of a Monday morning. Naturally, following international aeroplane protocol, the higher-paying passengers stepped off first. One of them was a young girl, wearing designer sunglasses and a faux fur coat, striding down the metal stairs to the ground and towards the automatic revolving glass doors leading into the arrivals terminal.

Walking through the terminal, the young girl did not break her quick stride as she pulled out her passport and handed it to the customs officer, who looked as though she was about to fall asleep at any moment. Being cleared for arrival, the trio headed out to the parking lot, where a black stretch limousine was waiting for them. The suited up chauffer opened the door for them, smiling at the girl.

"Mademoiselle Roberts?" he asked as she settled in on the plush seats of the car. The girl took off her sunglasses and placed them in their case.

"Merci, Gerard." She responded, the French accent rolling off her tongue naturally. "_Take me home_." She added, swiftly switching back to English.

The streets, like the airport were dark and almost soundless, for the majority of Parisians were asleep at an hour like this. The limousine had no traffic to push through, and arrived at the suburban house within minutes. The front room's and porch lights were on, letting the girl breathe a sigh of relief as she left the car and rolled her luggage up to the front door. Making sure she didn't wake the angry neighbours, the girl knocked on the wooden door, almost denting the ring she was wearing as she did. The door opened quickly, and the woman who answered it took no more than two seconds to recognise the face and embrace the tired girl in her arms.

"Oh, Tina, I'm so glad you're home!" She said, squeezing the girl tighter.

"It's nice to be home, Mama." Tina replied, beaming into her mother's shoulder.

-----

Five hours later, (at a "decent" hour to Tina) the alarms around the house went off, waking the occupants who grudgingly turned them off and sat up in their beds, muttering under their breath about how stupid Tuesdays were. Tina, naturally, slept through the alarms, but the smell of burning toast was what woke her up. Rubbing her eyes as they adjusted to the light, she made her way into the familiar kitchen of the house, grinning when she saw who was making the toast.

"Papa!" She shrieked, running across the room and flinging her arms around him, barely giving him enough time to place his toast on the table before catching her.

"Ah, Tina, it's good to have you back." he answered, patting her back as she pulled away from the hug. Stealing his toast, she walked towards the couch in the living room and took a bite of it, gagging slightly when she tasted it.

"Oh my gosh! You eat wholegrain bread now? However did you get everyone to agree?" She yelled across the room, taking another bite as she did.

"Well nobody's here anymore, Ti, we're allowed to change things now." Her father laughed, placing another slice of bread in the toaster. Tina giggled as she glanced around the living room, looking for something.

"That's strange..." she said, taking yet another bite of the burnt wholegrain toast, "I would've though Ulrich would be here to see me by now." Hearing her confusion, her father joined her on the couch.

"I've been meaning to tell you this, Ti. Since your mother and I aren't happy with Ulrich's school marks, we've left him at school over the break to think about his actions." Tina scoffed at the remark.

"So he isn't here?" her father shook his head, "Well it looks like I'm gonna have to visit him now, then?"

-----

To the boarders of Kadic Junior High, managing to shower in warm or hot water was a miracle. Only those who could be bothered to wake up a full hour to an hour and half early, got the sought-after showers. After two and a half years of cold showers, Ulrich had decided to sacrifice his sleep to get a much-deserved warm one. Silently, so he wouldn't wake his roommate, he stepped out of the room with his belongings and made his way to the bathrooms at the end of the hall. It was very early, and he was taken aback when he heard the familiar screeching voice of Sissi outside the bathrooms.

"Oh, my God. I cannot believe it! She's coming here? No way! Oh my God!" Ulrich retreated behind the wall so Sissi couldn't see him and annoy him this early in the morning. It didn't work. Sissi snapped her phone shut and ran over to him, ignoring the obvious fact he didn't want to talk to her.

"Ulrich!" She started, dragging out his name in a trying manner, "guess who's coming as an exchange student to our school? Only the most talented singer in the world!" Ulrich rolled his eyes as he attempted to step out of the way.

"Aren't you even going to guess?" She demanded, sticking her phone into his face. Ulrich kept quiet. "Tina Roberts!" Ulrich continued to step past Sissi, ignoring her.

"Hey!" She yelled after him. "You don't know Tina Roberts? The up-and-coming French-born singer who has recently made it big in America?" Sissi's infuriating groans followed Ulrich all the way to the bathroom. He was not looking forward to Sissi acting stuck up when the supposed superstar arrived.

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_**Hello! So this is the start of my newest fic, **_**Why You Should Never Have A Little Sister**_**. Someone may say that this has a similarity to a now deleted fic entitled **_**Code: Serenity**_**. Please do not flame me and say that I stole the original author's idea, because I am friends with her and she **_**told me **_**I could write this.**_

_**Anyways, now that that is cleared up, please review! It would mean a lot to me, and if I find people have an interest in this story, I shall write more. (:**_

_**So, review, and sorry for the long author's note!**_

_**- Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	2. Bonding

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

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Despite Sissi's excited monologues about _the_ Tina Roberts coming to Kadic Junior High, the school day and classes went extremely slow, minutes feeling like hours and hours feeling like days. To make matters worse for Ulrich, Odd wanted to join the crowd going to see the singer when she arrived at lunchtime that day. Ulrich was repulsed at the idea.

"Oh come on Ulrich, it'll be fun watching Sissi make an absolute fool of herself!" Odd said, trying to pull Ulrich out of his chair in the cafeteria at the start of lunchtime. Ulrich angrily pulled his arm out of Odd's grip and sat back down in his chair, arms crossed, like a sulky little child.

"I'm not going." Aelita, Jeremie, Odd and Yumi stared at him and then shared a glance at one another.

"I'll stay too." Jeremie added, motioning for the others to leave, "I have a program I'd like to work on anyways." Giving a fleeting last look at Ulrich, the others left, leaving Jeremie and Ulrich as the only ones left in the cafeteria.

"Why don't you want to go, Ulrich?" Jeremie asked, leaning closer to Ulrich over the table.

"I'd rather not talk about it." was the sulky reply he got.

-----

A surprising number of people were waiting at the front gate of the school, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Tina Roberts. At the very front were Sissi, clutching her autograph book and copy of Tina's CD for dear life, and Milly and Tamiya, ready to catch the singer off-guard with probing questions such as "Waffles or pancakes?". As Aelita, Odd and Yumi strode up the fringes of the crowd, a loud shriek came from the front of the crowd. Tina Roberts was in the building.

The gleaming black sports car came to a standstill in front of the gate's archway, in which time the back door opened and the singer stepped out. With all the attention about this one arrival, Odd was expecting the new student to be wearing something more expensive looking and impressive than her skinny jeans, singlet, faux fur jacket and ugg boots. Nonetheless, Sissi ran up to the girl, treating her like royalty, beaming like a small child on Christmas morning.

"Hi-Miss-Roberts-it's-an-honour-for-us-to-have-you-here-my-name-is-Sissi-Delmas-the-principal's-daughter-you-are-amazing." She said, not taking a breath the entire sentence and her voice filled with enthusiasm, taking Tina's hand and shaking it intensely. The singer smiled warily at the fangirl as she attempted to pull her hand out of Sissi's grip.

"It's a pleasure, really." She answered, searching the crowd for one familiar face. Tina's face fell. Ulrich hadn't even bothered to come out and greet her. A high-pitched voice broke her out of her thoughts.

"Come here, I bet you're hungry. Lets go to the cafeteria!" Grasping Tina's wrist, Sissi dragged the girl towards the cafeteria, closely followed by the crowd from the gate.

The cafeteria was uneasily quiet before the pack of students fawning over Tina entered. Everyone was busy laughing and talking to the new student that they didn't notice the odd silence that came over her when she noticed the two students sitting in the corner. Tina stepped towards them, before being pulled back by Sissi, who noticed her interest in him.

"That's Ulrich Stern." She whispered in her ear. "He's star striker in the school. He's totally off-limits, by the way." Tina ignored her as she tiptoed towards Ulrich, who had his back to her. Whispers of "what is she doing?" filled the room as Tina gradually placed her arms around Ulrich, pulling him into a hug. Ulrich's Penchak Silat kicked in as he grabbed the wrist of his assailant and shoved it away from him forcefully as he stood up. It took only moments for him to distinguish the face.

"Tina." He stated heatedly, still recovering from the shock of her hug.

"Ulrich." She replied coolly. They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity to both.

"What are you doing here?" He asked impatiently, letting go of his sister's wrist.

"To see you." She responded, a tinge of sadness in her voice as she lightly touched where his hand just was.

"Well the problem is, Tina, I don't wanna see you." Ulrich answered. Sissi, unable to take anymore, let out a very audible gasp, which caused everyone, including Ulrich and Tina to look at her. Suddenly disliking all the attention, Sissi backed into the crowd, giving Aelita, Odd and Yumi a chance to see the commotion.

"Why?" She whispered, only loud enough for Ulrich to hear. Tina got no response as Ulrich pushed past her and exited the cafeteria, leaving Tina standing there confused, upset and enraged.

-----

A rapid knock followed by Ulrich's dorm door opening revealing Aelita, Jeremie, Odd and Yumi snapped Ulrich out of his thinking moments after the incident in the cafeteria.

"Leave me alone." Ulrich moaned, not even bothering to check who it was. Yumi walked across the room and sat on his bed, grabbing his forearm and pulling him up to sit next to her.

"Not until we figure this Tina Roberts thing out." She replied, letting Ulrich scoot up the bed so Aelita could sit down too. She was obviously worried.

"Everybody heard your little argument in the cafeteria, Ulrich, and frankly we, your friends would especially like to know what the hell is going on." Jeremie added, fixing his glasses and dropping his laptop bag on the desk next to the bed. Yumi glanced between Jeremie and Ulrich wearily.

"He's just worried that XANA may try to take advantage of you and your girlfriend's little quarrel." She said dismissively, waving a hand through the air and pointing a finger at Jeremie, a slight air of jealousy coating her voice on the word 'girlfriend'. Ulrich sighed as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Tina? My girlfriend. God, no. That is so wrong on so many levels." Aelita, Jeremie, Odd and Yumi looked at each other puzzled. Ulrich noticed this.

"She's my sister, my biological sister, although I have absolutely nothing to do with her now." Yumi shook her head, trying to get an understanding of this.

"Well why don't you want to see her then?"

"Because she's not my sister."

"But you just said-"

"I know what I said. I just wish she was the same as she was two years ago! Not this singer-slash-actress social-climbing little bitch!" Ulrich yelled, standing up angrily and pointing in some direction the others guessed to relate to Tina. Ulrich sat down on his bed again forcefully and returned his arms to the crossed position they had been almost all day.

-----

"What happened between you and Ulrich?" Sissi asked worriedly, watching her idol pace the room, packing away clothes and her belongings in drawers and cupboards around the room. Tina smiled exhaustedly as she picked up another load of clothes and placed them in the second drawer across the room, pushing wisps of hair out of her face as she did.

"Isn't it obvious? He doesn't want to see me here." She answered, sitting down on her bed next to Sissi.

"How could he not want to see you?" Sissi questioned, placing a hand on Tina's shoulder supportively, "You're _the _Tina Roberts!" Tina smiled thankfully as she put her own hand on Sissi's.

"He still sees me as Valentina Stern, his adorable little sister." She replied, looking at the floor. Sissi took her hand back.

"You're his sister?" She asked incredulously, her mouth gaping open in surprise. Tina nodded.

"I've been in Los Angeles for schooling the last two years. Learnt English there, made many friends, started a career in music…" She trailed off. Sissi stared at her.

"And…?"

"Lost contact with my own brother, who won't even speak to me anymore." She finished, sighing and gazing at the floor. "I don't even know why." She added, willing the tears that were threatening to fall to stop. Sissi was stunned by her star's unease.

"I'm sorry." Tina said, trying to laugh the conversation off, standing up as she heard the bell ringing for class. She held the dorm door open for Sissi in the universal sign for "leave", which Sissi took.

"I'll see you later." She said, bowing slightly as she ran down the hall, her backpack bouncing off her back as she did. Tina shook her head at the sight as she opened her own messenger bag to find her new books and stationary for classes.

"Sweet girl." She whispered, closing the bag again and placing it on her shoulder, walking out the door and looking at her new timetable to find that her next class was music.

"_Lucky me."_ she thought as she made her way through the various buildings, trying to find the music classroom A48.

-----

Throughout English, Odd couldn't stop thinking about Ulrich's yelling lecture about his sister. She had seemed quite upset during their shouting match in the cafeteria earlier that day.

"_Why does he hate her so much?" _He asked himself as he hastily scribbled down the notes left on the board by the English teacher. Jeremie and Aelita were sitting on the desks in front of himself and Ulrich, and were busily discussing the themes of _A Midsummer Night's Dream _and writing them down. Odd was rather startled when he heard Jeremie's laptop beep from his bag lying on the ground by his legs. XANA had activated a tower.

"Students are to keep their phones off at all times during school hours." The English teacher announced from the front of the room, her back still facing the class. Jeremie and Aelita looked worriedly at each other as they hurriedly stuffed their books into their bags.

"Uh, Miss, I feel ill. May I go to sickbay?" Aelita called out, looking over her shoulder at Ulrich and Odd, who were following their lead.

"Yes, of course, Miss Stones." The teacher replied, still with her back to the class.

"I'll go too!" Jeremie added, raising his hand and running out of the room with Aelita, followed by Ulrich and Odd, who yelled out calls of "me too" as they exited the room. Jeremie pulled out his phone and texted an SOS message to Yumi. He had a feeling that they would need everyone this time round.

Tina was walking as slowly as possible towards the 'A' schoolrooms to get out of class. Her school in Los Angeles was nothing like Kadic Junior High. As she neared the archways, Tina heard heavy footsteps approach her. Assuming it was a teacher or member of staff, she ducked under the small wall of the archway, but soon realised it wasn't as she looked past the end of the wall and seeing Ulrich and his friends running towards the campus park. Furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, and following the natural little sister instinct, Tina ran after him. After everyone had opened and close the manhole cover and gone down to the sewers, Tina raced towards it and copied their movements. She took a breath as she climbed down the ladder to the sewers.

"_Why do they want to go down here?" _She wondered as she stepped over the pipe onto the concrete. Looking around, Tina noticed a skateboard resting up against the wall as a metallic clang caused her to snap her head towards the ladder again. Yumi jumped over the pipe and reached to grab the skateboard, but froze when she saw Tina.

"What the _hell _are you doing here, Tina?" she asked disbelievingly, amazed that Tina managed to find the entrance to the sewers. Tina looked at her perplexed.

"What are _you _doing down here?"

"I asked you first." Tina crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at her.

"How childish. Actually I was looking for Ulrich. I saw him come down here." An awkward silence clouded the atmosphere as the two girls stared at each other. This was broken however by Yumi's phone ringing. Placing it next to her ear, Yumi was relieved to hear Jeremie's voice.

"Yumi, where are you?"

"At the sewers. I ran into Ulrich's sister. Turns out she followed him down here."

"Can you get rid of her?"

"I doubt it. She seems intent on finding out where he is." Tina made a sarcastic remark under her breath, causing Yumi to glare menacingly at her.

"Fine, bring her to the factory. She can stay with me." Jeremie compromised, as he hung up. Yumi stuck her phone back in her pocket and grabbed Tina's wrist, pulling her along behind her.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" She shrieked, attempting to wriggle out of Yumi's grip.

"Taking you to your brother."

-----

"Virtualisation!"

Aelita, Odd and Ulrich landed swiftly on the terrain of the Ice Sector of Lyoko.

"Chilly as usual." Ulrich commented, clapping and rubbing his hands together. "Could we get some vehicles, Jeremie?" He yelled into the sky, just as the Overbike, Overwing and Overboard virtualised in front of them.

"You were saying, Ulrich?" Jeremie retaliated, smirking as he typed.

"Hold on, XANA's got you the welcoming committee at 6 o'clock!" The trio spun around, pulling out their weapons as they did, ready for any of XANA's monsters. What they weren't prepared for, was Tina walking towards them, sneering, virtualised, and XANA-fied. Recovering from the shock just as quickly as it came over them, every leapt onto their vehicles and sped towards the new monster of XANA's.

"Hey, Einstein, what's up? The monster looks just like Ulrich's sister!" Odd called, aiming his arm ready to fire at the 'welcoming committee'.

"Impossible!" Jeremie shouted, as he stopped typing.

"Are you sure it's Tina?" he questioned, resuming typing again as the elevator doors opened revealing Yumi and a very bewildered Tina. Jeremie turned to look at the two, checking Tina's eyes for the XANA bullseye. It wasn't there.

"Yumi, get straight down to the scanners, I have a feeling this new monster's going to need some work." Yumi unquestionably obliged, shoving Tina towards the mainframe of the supercomputer and pushing the elevator button down. Tina stared at the giant computer and gave Jeremie a questioning look.

"What is this place? Where is Ulrich?" She asked Jeremie, walking over to the chair and looking over his shoulder. Jeremie didn't answer.

"Laser arrows!" Odd yelled, firing arrows at the new monster, XANA-Tina. One hit her in her midsection, stopping her briefly. Back in the real world, however, Tina doubled over in pain, shrieking and clutching her midsection, where blood was quickly seeping through her singlet top. Jeremie looked over to her and gasped.

"Odd, Yumi, Aelita, Ulrich, stop attacking the XANA-Tina! Now!" On Lyoko, Yumi looked up to the sky.

"Why not?" Jeremie jumped down from his chair and inspected Tina's injury, which looked exactly like an arrow had gone through her.

"Because, you guys, every time you hit Tina on Lyoko, she gets hit on Earth!"

Aelita, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi glanced at each other, hastily putting away their weapons as they took refuge behind a large glacier.

"Wait, how do you know this?" Odd asked, stepping off his Overboard and glancing up at the sky.

"Apparently she followed you guys to the sewers, where I ran into her and brought her here." Yumi replied for Jeremie, pointing her fan at Odd and then at herself.

"You mean that she's somehow connected to the Tina here?" Ulrich asked, trying to hide the worry in his voice with anger.

"Exactly, Ulrich. And hurry, because if you don't deactivate that tower soon, your sister is going to die from your own weapons!"

_**----------**_

_**OK, so it was quite a long chapter. Sorry about not breaking it up, but I couldn't find any spot to break it without making the separate chapters really short. **_

_**Please review, constructive criticism is happily taken!**_

_**- Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	3. Rememberance

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

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"Devirtualise me." Ulrich said, stepping in front of Yumi and motioning for her to hit him. She looked stunned.

"What?" She queried, not sure she had heard him right.

"Devirtualise me." He repeated. Yumi rolled her eyes.

"Fine." She replied, opening her fans and throwing them at him, devirtualising him. Odd still looked shocked.

"Why did he want to do that?" Yumi stashed her fan back underneath her sleeve.

"Don't ask me."

On earth, one of the scanners opened and Ulrich stumbled out, the bright light killing his eyes. He staggered to the elevator, pushing the 'up' button and holding his aching head. Being devirtualised by one of your own always hurt more. The elevator rumbled to life and Ulrich used the wall to support himself, the pain still greatly affecting him. The doors opened and Ulrich half ran, half stumbled to where Tina was lying on the floor, using her hands to put pressure on the wound. Blood was all over her hands, singlet top and the floor. Jeremie noticed this and ran back to his computer.

"Tina!" Ulrich yelled, kneeling down, putting his hands on Tina's and pressing down. Tina's eyes flickered open and then half closed again, but that was enough to see her brother.

"Ulrich." She acknowledged, smiling exhaustedly. "You are here." She added, looking down at the blood, causing Ulrich to do so too.

"Does it hurt?" Ulrich asked, trying to lighten up the tense situation. Tina sighed.

"It's a through-and-through wound, Ulrich. What the hell do you think?" She laughed, obviously trying to get her mind off the pain.

On Lyoko, the four Tarantulas continued shooting lasers at the glacier, perhaps hoping that it would eventually break down. As Odd looked around the edge of the glacier, he saw the XANA-Tina standing motionless, arms crossed and a smirk on her face. He looked back at his friends.

"How are we supposed to deactivate that tower with four Tarantulas and _her _there?!" He demanded, pointing in the general direction of XANA-Tina. Yumi smiled and flicked her two fans out from under her sleeves.

"Like this." She responded, running towards the other side of the glacier and flinging both of the fans at the Tarantulas, causing both to look towards the sound came from. One of the fans hit one Tarantula right on the bullseye. Odd hopped onto his Overboard and rose up above the glacier, hitting another on the bullseye. Yumi jumped on her Overwing and motioned for Aelita to mount Ulrich's Overbike.

They rode past the Tarantulas, dodging the lasers shot at them. Unfortunately, the Overbike was shot, devirtualising it and dropping Aelita to the ground. Yumi saw this and spun around, pulling out her fans again, but a sharp pain in her back caused her to fall off the floating scooter. She turned around and saw the XANA-Tina smiling at her wickedly, her black and red crossbow still poised in attack mode. Yumi threw her fans at the monster, without thinking about Jeremie's warning, only to be devirtualised by the XANA-Tina's arrow.

Lying on the factory floor, Tina suddenly flung herself to one side, as if something sharp had cut her deeply on her side. Looking at Tina's side, Ulrich saw a large cut seeping more blood through Tina's singlet top. Tina had been hit again, and she wasn't going to hold on much longer. Tina moaned and bit her lip trying not to concentrate on the pain.

"Yumi!" Aelita called as she saw her friend devirtualise off Lyoko. Concentrating all her energy to her hands, Aelita generated two energy fields, casting them both at the Tarantula in front of her, which was focused on Odd. One hit it on its leg and devirtualised it, for Aelita's energy fields did not have to hit the bullseye. Odd cheered as the oversized spider exploded and he focused his attention on the remaining Tarantula.

"Laser arrows!" He yelled, shooting several arrows towards the creature, hitting it on its legs, body and finally the bullseye on its head. Aelita ran towards the red tower, not noticing XANA-Tina standing to the right of her until it was too late. The arrow disappeared immediately after contact, but Aelita could still feel it as she stood up again, clutching her side where the arrow hit. Odd came to the rescue shooting laser arrows at XANA-Tina, giving Aelita the chance to run to the tower.

"Hurry!" he yelled, as one of the arrows missed the monster by an inch. He also didn't see the XANA-Tina arrow until it was too late. Aelita heard the sounds of devirtualisation as she dove into the activated tower. Running to the centre of the tower, she felt herself lift up into the air, towards the second level of the tower. Finding ground, she walked into the central point of the bullseye, pressing her hand onto the screen that appeared before her as she approached the centre.

"Code?" it asked, blinking every second until Aelita entered in "Lyoko" and saw the screens around her on the tower's walls fall down into darkness.

Jeremie clicked his fingers as he pressed the 'enter' button on the computer's keyboard.

"Return to the past now!" He said, as the large holographic projector next to him lit up in a massive bright light, absorbing everything it came into contact with. Tina was safe.

-----

"Are you going to go see you sister this time round?" Odd asked Ulrich as they walked out of the science lab at the start of lunch after the return to the past. Ulrich smiled as he placed the strap of his bag over his shoulder.

"Yeah, I am." He answered, as himself, Odd, Jeremie and Aelita walked down the stairs to the main campus area and towards the front gate. "Doesn't mean I have to like her this time round, though." He added under his breath as the group noticed a black sports car come to a stop in front of the gate, and Sissi delivering her rapid introduction speech once again. Tina smiled at the fangirl, but looked extremely confused. Noticing Ulrich at the back of the crowd, she rushed over to him, students moving out of the way of the new exchange student-slash-singer. Dropping her satchel bag at her feet, she placed her hands on her hips and frowned at him, despite Ulrich putting his arms out in a half-hearted hug.

"What the _hell _has happened, Ulrich? Why are we a couple of hours back in the past now? What happened?" The Lyoko gang gaped and blinked at her, unsure that they heard her right.

"You-you remember?" Ulrich gawked, his mouth almost dropping to the ground.

-----

Ulrich and Odd's dorm door swung open and the Lyoko gang plus Tina walked in, Ulrich lightly pushing Tina onto his bed and sitting down next to her, Jeremie and Aelita sitting on Odd's bed and Yumi and Odd sitting on chair backwards, all staring at Tina. They said nothing.

"What's going on, you guys? I'm almost dead and then I go back in time. Is this the afterlife?" Tina questioned, looking from Aelita and Jeremie over to Ulrich and back again.

"You remember the return to the past." Jeremie stated, pushing his glasses back up his nose. Tina looked at him questionably.

"Obviously." Ulrich stood up and ran a hand through his hair.

"Did you tell her about Lyoko, Jeremie?" He asked, looking out of the window of the room. Jeremie shook his head.

"Lyoko?" She asked.

"But she remembers." Yumi added, standing up and joining Ulrich.

"WILL SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Tina yelled, standing up in frustration. Everyone continued to gape at her. "PLEASE!" Nobody answered. Tina threw up her hands in irritation. "Thanks for the help, you guys!" She stalked out of the room, slamming the door and yelling her head off as she walked down the hallway.

Ulrich and Yumi sat back down on Ulrich's unmade bed.

"Well what now?" Yumi asked, putting her head on her hands and sighing. Jeremie stood up and started pacing the room.

"Well, I have a theory you guys. The activated tower that XANA pulled on us was a virus on Tina to make sure everytime we hit her on Lyoko, she gets hit on earth. If my calculations are correct, sending her to Lyoko will save her. That way, if XANA-Tina gets hit, Tina only loses life points, not her actual life. If XANA-Tina gets devirtualised, so does Tina, but she won't die. Take into account here guys that the return to the past does not bring back people who died because of a XANA attack." Odd put his hand up.

"But if we scan her, she'll definitely remember everything." Jeremie nodded. Ulrich nodded slowly.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's do this." He said, clapping his hands together. Yumi crossed her arms.

"No. There is no way we can trust her with the secret of the supercomputer without knowing her. She could tell anyone!" Ulrich glared at her.

"Tina isn't like that. I can trust her, so can you." Yumi glowered back at him.

"Says the brother who hates her guts." She retorted.

"Look, I may dislike her now, but she's my sister, and I know my sister. She keeps everything to herself." Yumi opened her mouth in aghast and was about to yell back at him as Jeremie's laptop's alarm beeped. Jeremie opened his laptop and gasped.

"Sorry guys, but this is going to have to wait. XANA's activated two towers." Everyone stood up and headed for the door, as Jeremie grabbed onto Ulrich's arm.

"Go find your sister, Ulrich." Ulrich pulled his arm out of Jeremie's grip as he ran towards the stairs to the girl's dorm floor.

"What do you think I'm doing, Einstein?"

_**----------**_

_**So things get interesting!**_

_**Reviews are appreciated, so press that gorgeous little green button now and send me one!**_

_**Thanks!**_

_**- Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	4. Changes

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

_**----------**_

For the second time, Tina was busily unpacking her suitcase, placing her clothes, shoes, makeup and other possessions in the various cupboards around the room. Music was blaring out of the iPod speakers that sat on her desk, causing all the stationary and iPod accessories on it to shake. Besides occasionally singing along to some of the lyrics of certain songs, Tina was quiet, still reeling over the "conversation" in her brother's and Odd's room. Due to the music playing so loud and her having her back towards the door, Tina did not hear Ulrich open the door or yell at her until he put his hand on his shoulder. Following human instinct, she swiftly spun around and held the assailant's wrist in a painful manner, her thumb digging into the bone and vein severely. Recognising the pained face of her brother, Tina let go of his wrist and flicked the speakers off, her ears still ringing from the loud pop music.

"What?" She asked, slightly louder than she thought, for the music had made her temporarily part-deaf. Ulrich picked up the pile of clothes she was holding and dumped them on her bed, grabbing her hand and dragging her down the hallway, Tina almost falling over from being pulled so fast.

"You're in trouble again, Tina. I have to get you to the factory." Tina grabbed onto his hand with her other hand and slipped it out of his grip, causing him to stop and look at her. She stood in the middle of the corridor, arms crossed and fiercely glaring at him.

"Why? Nobody is telling me anything about what almost killed me or why I am not allowed to say anything about it. Ulrich, what the hell is going on?" She demanded, looking at Ulrich in the eye. Ulrich glowered back at her, grabbing onto her wrist again and continuing running towards the door of the dorm building. He hated the fact that she had become so demanding.

-----

"Virtualisation!"

Aelita, Odd and Yumi landed perfectly on their feet and knees in the Mountain Sector of Lyoko. It was quiet, and no monsters or XANA-Tina seemed to be around. The Overboard and Overwing appeared next to the trio, Aelita jumping onto the Overwing with Yumi and Odd going alone.

"_The tower is down the path at 4 o'clock." _Jeremie's voice stated from the misty sky as the three warriors looked around. _"It should be within sight from where you are."_

"Jeremie, I don't see it." Yumi affirmed, nodding towards where Jeremie said it should be.

"_The path or the tower?" _Jeremie's voice asked. Yumi opened her mouth to answer but before she could the vehicle beneath her devirtualised, dropping Aelita and Yumi to the ground. XANA-Tina stood behind them, smirking as she always did and her crossbow still in attack position. Odd spun around on his Overboard and started to shoot towards where the attack came from, stopping hastily when he realised it was _her_. XANA-Tina loaded another arrow onto her crossbow, as Yumi threw her fan at her, aiming for her arm, remembering the affect it had on Tina. She missed, hitting the side of the monster's midsection.

"Sorry, Tina." Yumi apologised under her breath as she took refuge behind a large boulder

"_Yumi, the path to the tower should be right in front of you!" _Jeremie's voice said urgently from the skies. Yumi scanned the area but could only see mist.

"Wait a second…" she realised, stepping off the edge of the platform into the mist, only to find a hidden path. Aelita noticed her friend's realisation and ran towards her, only being shot at by XANA-Tina again.

"Laser arrows!" Odd yelled, shooting at the monster and aiming for less vital points like her legs and arms. One hit her stomach.

"Einstein!" Odd shouted into the sky, taking off on his Overboard towards where he saw Yumi and Aelita go moments before "Where's Ulrich and Tina? She's not going to hold on much longer."

On Earth, Jeremie frantically typed and programmed as the elevator doors opened revealing Ulrich and a very bloody and inured Tina.

"Get her to Lyoko!" Ulrich yelled, using his elbow to punch in the 'down' button, since his arms were carrying and supporting his sister. Jeremie nodded, starting up the virtualization program. Downstairs, Ulrich lightly placed Tina into the scanner next to him, shouting an 'OK' to Jeremie. The scanner doors closed around the two siblings, lifting them up above the floor of them.

"Virtualisation!"

Two bodies generated on Lyoko, a few metres above the ground, dropping as soon as they finished "materializing". Ulrich, naturally, landed on his feet. Tina was not so lucky. Standing up off the ground and rubbing her sore rear, Tina looked around and at herself. She had changed what she was wearing, and she looked and felt all digitalized. Looking at her white and gold light-weight coat over her white dress and cross between ballet shoes and boots, Tina attempted to adjust to the new sensations that she felt, noticing the vehicle that was appearing beside her brother. Ulrich motioned for Tina to get on behind him as he cranked the modified motorbike and the two sped towards where the others were. Hanging onto her brother for dear life, Tina glanced around taking in everything.

"Ulrich, what is this place?" She asked, tightening her grip around Ulrich's waist as they turned a tight corner.

"Lyoko. A virtual world." He answered, not taking his eyes off the road. "The reason we brought you here is because this is the only place that you can't be killed in." Although that was not entirely true, and Ulrich knew that, it was the only way to stop his sister from worrying. Tina slowly nodded in agreement as the motorbike stopped upon seeing a lone figure running towards the edge of a cliff.

"Hey, she looks like…." Tina started as the motorbike charged full-speed towards the figure, hitting her in the process. Ulrich and Tina jumped off the bike as it flew off the cliff and a huge blue light took its place. Tina pulled her brother's arm and pushed him up against the boulder they were hiding behind.

"What the hell was that for?" She angrily asked, clutching her midsection from where the bike hit XANA-Tina. Ulrich pushed his sister away and gripped her wrist, pulling them off the cliff and onto the hidden path beneath it, seeing the others running down it towards a large, red tower.

"Odd!" Ulrich yelled, waving at his friend. Odd smiled at his ally and shot behind the two, hitting XANA-Tina who was behind them. Aelita ran into the tower as Tina tried to shake off the pain of the Laser Arrows.

Inside the tower, Aelita levitated to the second level, placed her hand on the screen that appeared before her and typed in the code Lyoko. The screens around her descended. Watching in amazement, Yumi, Odd, Ulrich and Tina witnessed XANA-Tina vanquish in an explosion of black and red smoke (to match her outfit). Amazingly, Tina didn't feel a thing.

"_Good work, guys." _Jeremie's voice sang form the sky, _"But you have another tower to get to still." _he added, the computer whirring away, saving the coordinates for the other tower.

"_Hey, wait a minute!" _the voice stated in surprise. The five Lyoko warriors looked up, all confused. _"The tower deactivated itself!" _he finished, obviously surprised and amazed. Tina, Ulrich, Odd, Aelita and Yumi looked at each other in shock. Jeremie resumed typing on the supercomputer's mainframe keyboard.

"_I'm going to bring you guys in. There's no point in being on Lyoko without a XANA attack." _He added.

-----

Dinnertime. The cafeteria was packed full, every student wanting dinner after the long and somewhat boring day of school. Tina waited patiently in the line, happily gossiping and chatting with two girls from her (and Ulrich's) class, Emily and Heidi.

"He did, did he?" Tina laughed, as the line finally began to move towards the food area of the cafeteria. Emily and Heidi giggled along with her, grabbing trays and glasses of their own and following the singer. Heidi flicked her shoulder-length hair behind her ear and picked up to plates of lasagna, passing one to Tina and beaming.

"Tina, I hope I don't sound too fangirl-ish when I say this, but so are so sweet and normal for a celebrity!" she cooed, causing Tina to almost roll her eyes in disgust, but stopping herself before she could. Instead, she smiled her famous grin and continued onto the end of the line, picking up plates of cake and vegetables on the way and attempting to balance her tray and bag as she walked across the room towards the table where Ulrich was sitting. Emily and Heidi stopped behind her, slightly crestfallen when they realised the table was full.

"Oh, I'm sorry girls. I'll sit with you guys tomorrow, promise." Tina said in a sugary sweet voice, looking up at the girls and grinning. The two girls' faces brightened up as they left together towards the tabled behind the gang's.

"Fan club?" Odd asked, swallowing a huge chunk of lasagna and smiling at her as she settled in and began tucking into her own meal. Before she could answer, the high-pitched and annoyingly ringing voice of Sissi Delmas filled the atmosphere of the room.

"Tina Roberts!" Tina jumped slightly in her hair and grimaced. Thankfully, her back was towards the fangirl and she did not notice. Sissi jogged over to the girl and knelt down next to her, looking up at the girl as if she were a goddess.

"I've been meaning to ask you this since I found out you were coming, but," she started, eyes wide with excitement and anticipation, "because of your experience in dance and music, could you teach a class here at Kadic, maybe bringing some talent to the giftless people in this school." she requested, loud enough for everyone in the cafeteria to hear. Everyone turned to look at the rising star. Sissi stood up, turning around with her arms outstretched to gather everybody's attention.

"IF ANYBODY WANTS TO HAVE TINA ROBERTS, THE MOST TALENTED GIRL IN THE WORLD, TO TEACH THEM HOW TO DANCE OR SING PROPERLY LIKE HERSELF OR MYSELF, RAISE YOUR HAND." She yelled, gently pulling Tina to her feet off the metallic chair and turning her towards the many raised hands of students in the school. Tina stifled a miserable sigh. She did not want to do this. On the other hand, did she really have a choice? Tina put on her best smile towards the crowded room.

"Tomorrow afternoon. After dinner. Bring dance clothing and a water bottle." She resigned, briefly smiling at Sissi and then returning to her food, as the rest of the cafeteria did. Jeremie stared at her.

"I don't want you doing this, Tina." He said, crossing his arms and leaning towards her. Tina leaned back into her chair, also crossing her arms, but in disgust.

"Since when can you tell me this? You're as bad as my mother or Ulrich!" She argued, throwing up her hands. Ulrich shot her a deathly glare.

"What?!" She asked indignantly, staring at Aelita, Odd, Jeremie and Ulrich in disbelief. "Why not?" Everyone else on the table glanced at each other worriedly and looked back at her.

"OK. We'll explain after dinner. Meet in my room." Jeremie conceded, going back to his dinner. Tina looked confusedly at everyone, hoping that someone would help her. Nobody looked back at her or smiled. Something was up.

-----

A hasty knock on the door followed by then unannounced opening of the same door showed the arrival of Tina in Jeremie's dorm room a quarter of an hour after dinner and dessert. Everybody else, excluding Yumi, was there, all in awkward silence and sitting, just waiting for her. Closing the door and leaning up against it, Tina crossed her arms and observed the scene.

"Are you going to tell me what this is about?" She asked coolly, giving the gang the same welcoming they had given her. Jeremie pushed his glasses up his nose and motioned for Tina to move towards where he was sitting, which was at the computer desk. Jeremie tapped a few keys on his desktop and the screen came to life, showing the virtualised versions of everyone, including Tina. There was also an image of the XANA bullseye.

"In this world, Lyoko, which you were virtualised to, all is not that seems. There is a virus bent on taking over the world. He is called XANA." Jeremie stated, turning in his chair and looking Tina in the eye. "XANA is evil, and because he knows we are the only ones who can stop him, because we are the only ones who know about Lyoko and the supercomputer, he is trying to kill us and/or defeat us so he can take over the world." He added, still looking Tina in the eye. Aelita got up and stood next to Tina, causing Tina to face her.

"XANA has somehow managed to make one of his monsters look like you. We don't know how, but it's not good. The only way we can stop it is by deactivating towers, which are a link between Lyoko and the real world." She said, her voice calm and quiet. Tina was obviously puzzled and frightened. Nonetheless, Aelita continued, "When he activates these towers, every time we hit this monster look-a-like, you are affected. We send you to Lyoko to save your life." Tina closed her eyes and started shaking, Ulrich rapidly getting up and leading her over the bed, laying her down.

"Do you understand?" He asked, as the others came over and looked worriedly at her. Tina opened her eyes and sat up again.

"Why are you telling me this?" She asked, her voice only a whisper, quiet and barely audible.

"Because when we send you to Lyoko, you become immune to our return-to-the-pasts, which a device we use to undo the events and erase the memory of un-Lyokoised people." Jeremie explained.

"OK…" she whispered, standing up and moving out of the door like a sleepwalker, presumably back to her room. Odd followed with his eyes until she was out of sight.

"I say she took that well." He stated, hoping to brighten up the situation. Ulrich stood up also and went after his sister, muttering something about 'more that meets the eye'.

She said nothing when she entered her room; she just lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, taking in everything that had been told to her moments before. XANA, Lyoko, life-saving. Tina closed her eyes and turned onto her side, now staring at the wall. Her bedroom door soon burst open however, and her brother stalked into the room, crossing his arms and leaning up against the wardrobe on the opposite side of the room. Tina turned over and curled into a ball.

"Have you ever heard of knocking?" she asked the intruder, slightly irritated but more so anxious.

"Does it really matter?" Ulrich asked, as Tina sat up on her bed at the recognition of his voice.

"Ulrich…." she started, not exactly sure to say. There was an awkward silence for some time, neither speaking because nothing could really be said. "Why are you being so mean to me?" she asked quietly, looking him straight in the eye. Ulrich stared back.

"Isn't it obvious, Tina? You've changed." He replied in his normal, emotionless tone.

"_I've _changed?" She questioned disbelievingly, placing her hand on her chest to emphasise. "I'm not the only one who has changed then, Ulrich." She added, raising her voice above a whisper.

"How have _I _changed?" Ulrich retorted, pushing himself off the wardrobe and striding over to his sister. Tina didn't stop glowering at him.

"Lyoko, XANA, Kadic. Ever since you came here, you've rejected me. Became some warrior for the earth and not even bothering to mention that you have a sister. Not once you mentioned me. How do you think I felt? You had disowned me!" She cited, standing up and moving closer to Ulrich, so the two were almost touching chests.

"I didn't disown you!" He snapped, raising his voice more.

"Then how come you never mentioned me to your best friends?" She reacted, still glaring at him.

"Because you've changed!" He answered back.

"Oh, so we're back to this now, are we?" Tina said her voice increasingly dramatically. "Face it Ulrich, you can't handle change unless it's you who has."

"Tina, you've changed. Before you went to L.A. you didn't care what people thought of you. You didn't try to get the best marks at school and you didn't bother about what Mother and Father thought of you. We used to practice martial arts together. We had similarities. Then you came back from America with your hair bleached, an agent and manager, desperately trying to make everyone happy while you pose for the cameras and take interviews on TV!" Tina gaped at her brother and slapped him across the face. Ulrich's eyes filled with rage as he held his burning cheek.

"You see, that's what I'm talking about! Where has your Savate training gone, Tina? Oh, right, that's another thing. You dropped something actually useful and took up bloody dance, singing and piano classes instead. And yet, you come back here, where I have friends unlike yourself, to try to patch things up like nothing's happened. You just expect everyone to love you anyway. Especially me, because I am unfortunately related to you by blood!" He shouted, storming out of the room and slamming the door. Tina collapsed onto the floor in the middle of her room and tucked into a ball again, trying to keep her cries low so nobody would hear them.

_**----------**_

_**Is anybody actually reading this?**_

_**Please review now, otherwise I won't update if nobody seems to be reviewing at all.**_

_**And I am enjoying writing this to be honest.**_

_**Sorry for sounding bitchy, but review if you want more, because otherwise I just won't bother.**_

_**- Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	5. Trust

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

_**----------**_

The next morning neither of the siblings uttered a word to each other. Breakfast was deathly quiet, despite Odd trying to lighten up the situation desperately but cracking jokes which the others only half-smiled at. Yumi arrived at school shortly before the bell and was greeted by everyone soundlessly by nods or slight waves. As Tina walked past her to get to her History class, each shot the other an icy glare but spoke no words.

Classes were the usual. Tina put on her best smile and sugary-sweet voice when she answered questions and gave opinions. Sissi, who sat next to her, stared at her in awe as she spoke of the French invading North America all those years ago. As the two worked in a group with Emily and Heidi, Tina constantly looked over to where Ulrich's group was, consisting of himself, Odd, Jeremie and Aelita. His back was turned towards her and he had no obvious desire to talk to her. Tina couldn't help but feel cheerless as she turned back to her own group and write on the mind-map they were working on.

The lunch bell ringing acted as a sign of relief for Tina as she packed her bag quickly and raced out of the classroom, attempting to get away from the fangirls for a little while. As she neared the cafeteria, she heard a familiar voice call out her name. Turning around, she distinguished the pink hair of Aelita bobbing towards her.

"Hi." She said, waiting for Jeremie to catch up. Tina smiled happily at them, glad somebody was finally speaking to her.

"We're going to the factory to try to find out more about this XANA-Tina. Do you want to come?" Jeremie asked, panting slightly from running over to her. Tina shook her head.

"No, if I get caught doing something I shouldn't, the principal will have my head. Then my parents will find out and kill me." Tina replied, with a tinge of sadness in her voice. "Do the others know?" Aelita nodded and followed Jeremie off to the campus forest, where the entrance to the sewers was. Tina walked up the steps to the cafeteria and opened the door inside, taking one look at the line for lunch and walking straight over to her brother's table. She wasn't hungry anyway.

"Hey." She greeted the three sitting at the table as she took a seat herself and dropped her bag on the floor. Odd beamed at her, but both Yumi and Ulrich did not pay any attention to her at all. Tina's smile faltered a little as she clapped her hands together and spun around in her chair to face Ulrich.

"OK. That's it. Family counseling time." She declared, making Ulrich turn to face her in surprise. Placing the cup of water he was drinking down on the cafeteria tray, he crossed his arms. Tina couldn't help but notice the look of shock from Yumi.

"What the _hell _is family counseling time?" Ulrich demanded, half-amused, half-irritated. Tina stared back at him.

"Well you told me why you've been acting this way and I haven't told you why." She reasoned, pointing her finger between her brother and herself. Ulrich stared at her, but made no comment. "OK, number one is Savate. I still love it Ulrich, just nobody teaches or practices it in Los Angeles because it is considered _French kickboxing_." She continued, raising one finger. "Number two is that my career _depends _on what people think of me. If I put out the belief that I am a bad role model, my career is over." Tina put another finger up. Odd, Yumi and Ulrich stared at her. "Number three, is that I have a split personality. The side that you have been seeing in class and on TV is called Tina Roberts. The one that I truly am and will always be even after my career is over is Valentina Stern. I'm sorry Ulrich. I guess you didn't realise how similar we are." This caught Ulrich off-guard.

"Similar?"

"Both of us have split personalities. You know what I mean. And we are more similar than you think." she added, holding out a hand for Ulrich to shake. "Truce?" she asked, looking her brother in the eye and pleading that he would accept. Ulrich took her hand and shook it.

"Truce." He agreed, smiling at her for what seemed like the first time in years.

-----

In the computer lab of the factory, which was unnervingly quiet, Jeremie and Aelita stood before the mainframe of the supercomputer, pulling information about XANA-Tina off data streams in the used-to-be-activated towers. Crossing her arms and standing still, Aelita scanned the flowing streams of numbers on the screen with her eyes, hoping to spot something out of the ordinary.

"How do you think XANA managed to create a monster that looks like Tina? There had been no attacks for a week before she came, so he never saw her." Aelita asked, still scanning the codes on the screen. Jeremie continued typing.

"I don't know, but it's not a good thing, as you said." her replied, not taking his own eyes off the screen. Aelita clicked her fingers in realisation.

"To make a creature on Lyoko look similar to what they did on Earth, like what you do with all of us, is through the use of DNA, isn't it?" She half-stated, half-ask, her voice slightly louder because of the excitement. Jeremie turned to look at her, but beamed.

"That's it, Aelita! You're a genius!" He yelled, holding her hands and twirling her around the room. Aelita grabbed her phone and punched in Odd's number.

"_Hi Princess, what's up?" _Odd greeted over the phone.

"Odd, tell the others that we've figured out how XANA created XANA-Tina!" Aelita exclaimed. She heard excited whispers over the phone belonging to Yumi, Ulrich and Tina.

"_We'll come over to the factory now!" _He answered just before he hung up, leaving Aelita to guess that they were already on their way.

A few minutes later, the elevator doors opened revealing Odd, Yumi, Ulrich and Tina. Aelita and Jeremie smiled at the group as they walked across the room to the computer mainframe.

"So what's this all about?" Tina asked calmly. Aelita gently grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the computer. She pointed to a computer window showing statistics for XANA's Tina-monster.

"See that?" Aelita asked, tapping the screen where she was pointing. Tina narrowed her eyes and studied the screen.

"What am I looking at?" She solicited, looking back and forth between the two geniuses. The two stood emotionless across from her. The whole tone of the room had suddenly changed.

"XANA has created this monster-look-a-like through the use of DNA." Jeremie stated, pushing his glasses up his nose. Tina gazed at him. "You know, DNA! Like the basis of everything."

"Yes, I know what DNA is." Tina cut him off, her tone of voice slightly harsher than she meant it to be. Jeremie took no notice of it.

"Do you have any idea how XANA got your DNA?" he questioned, going to his computer and bringing up a search engine, ready to hack into a hospital database or government website. Tina shook her head.

"No. I haven't been in prison or joined the army or anything that would need DNA." she answered, crossing her arms and looking over Jeremie's shoulder. "I did have a blood test a while ago at a Paris hospital, though. Blood has DNA, right? I would've thought so." At the mention of a hospital, Jeremie opened the hospital database page.

"Did the hospital use computers on the blood?"He asked, typing rapidly non-stop. Tina looked puzzled.

"I don't know." As she said this, the computer started beeping quickly and another window opened, announcing the presence of a XANA bug.

"That's it! I think I understand now!" Jeremie proclaimed, spinning around in his chair to face the worried and confused faces of his friends. "XANA was using the hospital computer for power, and while scanning it, found the familiar surname of 'Stern'. He must have figured that Tina was his sister, implanted her with a virus which would hospitalize her, but not kill her, using her as sabotage to pull Ulrich away from this gang. I bet he thought that Ulrich loved his sister and would do anything to help or save her, but he underestimated the power of sibling rivalry!" He explained. Aelita's eyes widened with realisation.

"But that didn't work because Tina came here to Kadic. So then, XANA made the virus worse and that it could kill her. He also realised he could activate more than one tower after XANA-Tina. When it deactivated itself, that was him realising he needed something more because sending Tina to Lyoko would save her. The next attack is definitely going to be much worse." Aelita added. Odd, Yumi, Ulrich and Tina glanced at each other and nodded.

"So what now?" Ulrich asked, walking over to stand next to Tina somewhat protectively. Jeremie continued typing swiftly on the computer.

"We figure out how to use this against him." Jeremie affirmed. Ulrich nodded and as he looked down at his sister, noticed she was shaking. Before he could ask, Tina spoke.

"This XANA. He's really dangerous isn't he?" Ulrich pulled his sister into a hug.

"Yeah. But that's why we're here, Tina." He answered into her hair. Odd, Jeremie and Aelita grinned at the embrace, happy that the sibling had finally broken their war. Yumi however, looked and felt a bit blasé about this joyful show of emotions.

-----

Classes went quickly after the achievement of figuring out more about XANA-Tina. Tina continued to wear the sugary-sweet smile on her face the rest of the day, looking over to Ulrich occasionally and mouthing 'I'm sorry' at him. Soon enough, it was 4o'clock and the gang was free to do as they wished. As Odd, Ulrich, Jeremie, Aelita and Tina jogged down the steps of the 'B' classrooms, eager to get to the factory and discover more about the new monster, they ran into a crowd of excited girls and boys, dressed in sportswear and carrying drink bottles all cheering for Tina.

"What's going on?" Tina yelled, trying to get the crowd to quite down. Sissi stepped out of the crowd and softly linked her arm around her own.

"Mr. Delmas, the principal and my father would like to watch these classes, so they have to be on before dinner." Sissi whispered as they entered the gym, followed by many eager students. "I tried to tell you before, but I couldn't find you at lunch." Tina tried to stop her eyes from rolling in frustration. Looking across the crowd to her brother and Jeremie, she mouthed for them to go on ahead. Ulrich and Jeremie looked at each other, trying to figure out what she wanted. Tina pulled her arm out of Sissi's reach and clapped her hands together, grabbing the attention of the crowd.

"OK. While I go to get changed into my dance gear, to warm up, I want 5 laps around the gym. Go!" She announced, running out of the room and towards the dormitories, closely followed by the other Lyoko Warriors. Racing into her dorm room and pulling out her red singlet and black crossover, her black stretch pants and her black 'jazz boots', Tina ripped off her jeans and white singlet, much to the embarrassment of the others, and quickly changed into her sports clothing.

"We need someone to stay with you at all times, Tina." Jeremie acknowledged, looking the other way as Tina turned around and pulled her black crossover and red singlet over her bra.

"Why?" She asked indignantly, running across the room and picking up her iPod, the various connection cords for it, her sweat towel and her hair ties.

"XANA can possess people into hurting you, Tina. Having a room full of people you're teaching is the perfect opportunity." Jeremie answered, as Aelita tapped his shoulder as a way of telling him Tina was decent again. "You have to have someone with you to notice the signs of XANA-ism and protect you." Tina picked up her bag and ran back out of the room, back to the gym, again closely trailed by the other five.

"I can protect myself." Tina said confidently, as she pushed through the doors to the gym and dropped her bag next to the door, glancing at the tired dance students and linking her iPod to the gym's stereo.

"OK everyone! Get into 5 lines behind me and we'll stretch!" Tina shouted as Rihanna's _Don't Stop The Music _blasted out of the gym's speakers. Tina smiled half-heartedly across the room to her brother as he, Odd, Jeremie, Aelita and Yumi stood at the back of the gym, all with arms crossed, watching soundlessly as Tina lead the group through a series of vigorous stretches.

"Somebody definitely needs to stay with Tina. Look at all these people!" Jeremie noticed, glancing at the 5 lines of students, which took up the entire gym. Odd raised his hand.

"I'll stay." He said, smiling his patented grin. The others nodded in agreement and ran out of the gym, off to the factory as Odd walked over to the front of the gym, near where Tina was standing and sat down in a corner, just watching her and the other dancers.

-----

The factory was quiet as Jeremie sat in front of the computer mainframe typing hurriedly and Aelita sat on the floor next to him, practicing similar movements. Yumi and Ulrich sat next to each other leaning against the wall across the room, sharing Ulrich's iPod, for they shared a similar taste in music. Ulrich smiled slightly as a song of Tina's started playing, but Yumi wasn't as happy, changing the song to the next one on the shuffle. Ulrich scowled and paused the iPod.

"Can you change it back?" He asked, trying not to look at her, perhaps to hide his love for Tina's music.

"No." Yumi answered coldly, turning off the pause and returning her full attention to the song playing. Ulrich paused the iPod again.

"What is your problem with my sister?" He asked, raising his voice, causing both Jeremie and Aelita to stop what they were doing and look at him. Yumi glowered at him.

"_My sister?_ Says the person who referred to her as a 'bitch' and hated her until 4 hours ago!" She retorted, pulling the iPod earphone out of her ears. Ulrich did the same.

"I didn't hate her. It was just a misunderstanding!" Ulrich shouted back.

"That lasted for over a year!"

"Well the point is that we've made up now. What is _your _problem with my sister? You don't even know her!"

"I know her enough."

"Then why do you not like her?" Yumi scoffed at Ulrich's remark.

"Oh, where do I start? Her split personality, her sugary-sweet actions, the fact that because XANA has a virus on her, everything seems to be about her now?" Ulrich's eyes filled with fury.

"Oh, so this is about attention now is it?" He snapped.

"Overall is that I don't trust her. She was inducted into the group purely because she happened to remember after the return-to-the-past. Nobody cared that I didn't want that to happen." She yelled.

"So this is about you not caring that my own sister nearly died more than once?" Ulrich furiously replied, standing up and towering over Yumi, who was still sitting down.

"No. I just don't like her."

"Why not?"  
"Did we not just go through this? Because she is too sweet, too perfect, has everybody love her and everything is now about her!" Yumi yelled, screaming in frustration and punching in the button for the elevator, and swearing in Japanese as the doors closed. Jeremie, Aelita and Ulrich were left staring at the doors.

"I can't say I blame her, Ulrich. She's right, you know." Jeremie stated, causing the others to look at him. "Everybody's been so wrapped up in this whole Tina thing that we forgot that first and foremost, the Lyoko gang is myself, you, Yumi, Odd and Aelita. Tina is an outsider, and we shouldn't have trusted her so quickly." Ulrich shot a death glare at him and stormed to the elevator and angrily punched the button.

"What the _hell _has Tina done to us?" He asked himself angrily as the elevator rose to ground level.

_**----------**_

_**I'm glad at least one person is reviewing now.**_

_**Please, I beg of you, review if you are reading this, because otherwise I just won't bother.**_

_**Sorry, guys.**_

_**Anyways, I hope you like it; leave your opinions/remarks about this fic in a review!**_

_**- Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	6. Excitement

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

_**----------**_

"This is so freaking unnerving." Tina stated as she, Odd and Ulrich strode into the cafeteria in the early hours of the school morning. They were a few of the first inside the cafeteria, for it was at least fifteen minutes before the usual breakfast time. Only Rosa, the lunch-lady and a quiet, younger student named Kelly were there, giving the cafeteria a chilly atmosphere.

"How so?" Ulrich asked as he handed a tray each to the others and sauntered down the cafeteria walkway, picking up the breakfast croissants and hot chocolate. Tina rolled her eyes at her brother's oblivious remark.

"Everything! The fact that all of your friends don't like me and/or trust me, the fact that XANA hasn't attacked in three and a half weeks, or the thought of Papa's reaction to you going home for the holidays!" She replied as the trio walked over to their usual table and took seats.

"I like you!" Odd added, hoping that he had heard Tina's comment wrong. Tina smiled sweetly at him and shook her head, giggling.

"OK, _most_ of your friends dislike and/or don't trust me." She corrected, taking a bite of the croissant and a sip of the hot chocolate in one go. Ulrich rolled his eyes at his sister's manners and handed her a napkin as a drop of hot chocolate rolled down her chin.

"Where's Einstein and Princess?" Odd asked, changing the subject as Sissi and her henchmen entered the cafeteria. Tina shrugged.

"No clue. I saw them just before I went off to bed. They were in Jeremie's room. Probably fell asleep holding hands or something." Ulrich answered, as Sissi noticed the group and ran over to them. Odd noticed her first.

"Hey, bird-brain." He greeted, beaming at her. Sissi glared at him as she tapped Tina's shoulder to grab her attention. Tina turned around and immediately put on her sugary-sweet smile.

"Hey Sissi, what's up?" she acknowledged, motioning for Sissi to sit down in the empty chair next to her, which she took happily.

"Tina…" she started, grasping her idol's hand with her own and holding it, "I've convinced my father, the principal to hold a Christmas ball and dinner on the last night before the holidays." Sissi raised her voice in excitement so much that it caused everyone in the cafeteria to gaze at her in suspicion or mock.

"And?" Tina asked, as if butter wouldn't melt.

"I would _love _for you to sing at it. It would make the night perfect." Sissi shrieked, pulling Tina out of her chair and spinning her around in the aisle between tables. Tina quickly pulled her hand out of Sissi's reach and slightly retreated, checking her wrist for any redness caused by the fangirl. Remembering that this would affect her fanbase, Tina put her best smile on her face once again.

"Of course, I would _love _too." She agreed, putting the same emphasis on 'love' as Sissi had. Sissi's face brightened remarkably with excitement and anticipation as she left the table and ran over to her father, who had just entered the now bustling cafeteria. Tina sat back down at the table exhaustedly and rolled her eyes.

"Sometimes I seriously hate fangirls." She avowed, only loud enough for her brother and Ulrich to hear, causing them both to chuckle as the three returned to their breakfasts. Jeremie, Aelita and Yumi soon joined the three, bringing an icy silence to the table except for the customary 'hellos'. The gang's table was used to unstable silence that covered it since Tina arrived; anytime either of the girls spoke the other would shoot a death glare at her. It was better to avoid the scenario. A loud yell from Jim silenced the cafeteria as Mr. Delmas cleared his throat and addressed the students.

"After much consideration, and since I believe that you, the students, do deserve it, the faculties have organised a school Christmas Ball and Dinner." He announced, which lead to the excited squeals of joy from many students. Mr. Delmas cleared his throat again. "I believe Miss Roberts, our exchange student and professional singer will be performing on the night, along with a couple of local bands and CDs of the latest pop music." he added, again followed by excited yells and shouts. The gang's table soon broke the awkward silence as Aelita and Tina's animated conversation about dances, dresses and shoes filled the atmosphere. Yumi sat back in her chair, arms crossed, taking in the scene and glaring at the two.

-----

Double Maths went extremely fast for everyone, since the hour of it consisted of every student excitedly conversing about the upcoming ball. Tina, like all other girls in the school, spent the remainder of the day enthusiastically designing her "dream dress" and staring into space, wondering about who to go with and what the night could behold. The poor Maths professor had absolute no control over the anticipating class and resorted to reading her novel instead of teaching. This did not bother the students. Soon enough, classes finished for the day and Tina's dance troupe had their hour class to carry out.

Everybody was too blissful about the ball to worry about the lack of energy or pain during stretches throughout the class. Loud music continued to pump through the gym's speakers, but that had no effect over the yells of "I'm wearing this and going with him!" that filled the air. Surprisingly however, the exhilaration of the event gave the dance troupe the best energy and confidence during the rehearsals of their dance, making Tina extremely happy.

"Oh my God guys, that was excellent! Nobody made a single mistake, you were all perfectly on time, and you gave it your best. I could feel it, I loved it! It was absolutely brilliant!" Tina praised as the performers lay on the floor of the gym, panting heavily from the tiring dance. Tina clapped genially and danced around the room, earning laughs and mocks from her students. "I loved it!"

Odd stood up from his seat at the front of the gym and joined in applauding the group. Tina beamed at her friend. He was the only one who had come to every class to support her. Checking her watch and realising that they had gone ten minutes overtime, Tina sent off her "apprentices" and began packing up her iPod and dance shoes. Noticing that he was behind her, Tina stood up and turned around, throwing her gym bag at him. Odd caught it, but dropped it soon after, his svelte figure not able to support the weight of Tina's various dance shoes, books and clothes. She laughed at the situation as she picked her bag up again and began walking to the door.

"Hey, Tina!" Odd called, running after her. She stopped and twirled around, almost hitting Odd in the process.

"Yes?" she asked, after a moment of staring at each other.

"Well, since you're you and I'm me," he started, scratching behind his neck. "Would you like to go to the Christmas dance with me?" he asked, bowing slightly in front of her. Tina giggled at his chivalry, and lifted up his chin with her finger, quickly pecking his lips and smiling.

"Why of course, Monsieur Odd!" she consented, still laughing at her own silliness. Odd beamed at her, and Tina grinned back. They stayed like that for a while, blushing, as the space between their faces closed up gradually. At the point there was literally an inch between them, Tina spoke again, breaking the tension.

"How romantic." she commented as she quickly seal the gap between them and kissed Odd. He responded instantly and hugged Tina closer to himself. Neither knew how long they kissed for, but it didn't really matter. To Ulrich however, one second was one second too long.

"Odd!" he bellowed, running up to the couple and furiously pulling his sister away from his best friend. Taking one look at Odd, who was much smaller than him, Ulrich was about to strike him as Tina intervened, pulling both of his arms painfully behind his back so he couldn't move.

"Get off me!" Ulrich roared, struggling as his younger sister pulled the elbows closer together, which got extremely more painful for him.

"No!" she screamed as they edged nearer to Odd. Ulrich soon broke free from his sister's grasp and sprinted towards Odd, fist ready to punch him. A loud yell from Jim stopped him.

"Stern! What the hell are you doing?" he shouted, marching over to the three students and standing in between Odd and Ulrich. Tina ran over to Odd and helped him stand up, earning a death glare from her brother.

"Miss Roberts, maybe you can shed some light on the situation." Jim announced, frowning at her. Tina sneered at her brother.

"I would usually correct you and say my surname is Stern, but right now I don't want to know my brother. He tried to beat up his best friend for no reason." She scorned, looking him in the eye fiercely.

"No reason? No reason?" Ulrich yelled, fuming. "I was protecting you!"

"From what? Having a relationship? Or is this just jealousy because your little sister has the backbone to actually go out with someone and not sit there like you just staring at the girl you love and daydreaming?" Tina snapped, letting go of Odd's arm and storming up to her brother so she was almost nose-to-nose with him. Jim clapped his hands together deafeningly to stop the argument.

"All right, that's it. The three of you, go to Mr. Delmas' office ON THE DOUBLE!" He said, pushing the three out of the doors of the gym. None of them said anything; they were all shooting murderous looks at each other.

-----

"I cannot believe that three student such as yourselves would get into a fight like this." Mr. Delmas berated at Odd, Tina and Ulrich in his office moments later. "I am especially disappointed in you, Miss Roberts. I'm sure with your career you wouldn't want something like this to happen." He scolded as Tina looked at the floor miserably.

"I didn't do anything, sir. I was the one holding Ulrich back." She reasoned, her voice low and sounding like she was about to cry any moment.

"But you also yelled at him, which could have caused another reason to fight. That is just as bad, in my book." The principal replied, picking up his phone. "Perhaps you coming to Kadic was not the best option. Maybe I should call your parents-"

"NO!" all three of them shouted simultaneously. The principal put down the phone and stared at them.

"Why not?" he asked, looking between Ulrich and Tina in confusion.

"If they hear, they'll split us up again. We only just got back on good terms, sir." Ulrich replied before Tina had a chance to. Mr. Delmas clasped his hands together.

"I do not follow. "Good terms" does not include fighting!" he rebuked, raising his voice. The three of them looked at the floor miserably. "Look, take this as a warning, you three. If I hear of any of you fighting with anyone else or each other, the consequences will be very severe. Now get out of my sight before I change my mind!" He shouted. The three were out of the office quicker than he could ever have imagined.

Odd, Tina and Ulrich walked solemnly towards the dorms after they had run out of the admin building. A tense silence followed the three until Aelita came running up to them.

"There you guys are! We've been looking all over for you! Where have you been?" she asked, gasping for air slightly.

"Principal's office." the three stated, looking at the ground again. Aelita shook her head and sighed.

"Why?"

"Fighting."  
"You guys are so stupid sometimes." Aelita said in a similar tone a mother would. This caused Tina to smile slightly. "Jeremie's been worried. Thought XANA got to you guys." Ulrich walked off, away from the others.

"Ulrich, where are you going?" Aelita yelled after him as he walked towards the gate.

"Gotta do something." He answered as he shoved his hands in his jean pockets and continued out towards the gate. Tina beamed as she watched her brother leave and pulled out her wallet, picking out a 10 Euro note from it and putting it in the space between herself and Odd.

"10 Euro says that he's gone off to ask Yumi out to the ball." She bet, making Odd smile and the tension break. Odd shook her hand.

"Deal." He agreed, as Aelita shook her head laughing at the fact the two were betting on their friend's love life.

_**----------**_

_**I'm so glad people are reviewing, please keep it up!**_

_**So Tina's acting very troublesome to the gang, now there's tension between her and Yumi, plus best friends Ulrich and Odd.**_

_**Want to know what happens?**_

_**Review and I shall update!**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	7. Music

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko or any of the songs mentioned in this chapter-**_

* * *

The campus was almost completely deserted the afternoon preceding the ball. All the girls had gone to the dorms (or home in Yumi's case) to prepare their outfits, shoes and makeup for the dinner and ball. The recreation room, for once, was filled by only the male population of the school, something rare, unexpected and probably would never happen again. Ulrich, Odd and Jeremie stood inside it, like every other guy in the school, cheering and betting on the foosball competition that was taking place that afternoon. Although it had been more than a week since the brawl in the gym, tension over Odd and Tina's relationship between Ulrich and Odd still hung over every conversation involving Tina's name. After much convincing, Ulrich had accepted the fact that Odd and Tina were "officially together", but it didn't mean he had to like it.

Standing at the back of the crowd that surrounded the foosball table, it was extremely hard to see where the match was leading; making Ulrich and Odd soon give up and resort to relaxing on the couch in front of the TV. Odd flicked on the TV and immediately smiled at the first thing that came up on the screen; a music video of Tina's. Both Ulrich and Odd stared in awe as they watched Tina dance around the screen, playing piano and singing her song. Both realising this at the same time, Odd instantly changed the channel to the news, the next show that happened to come up. After a moment of silence Odd decided to figure out what was going on.

"It's the ball tonight." Ulrich stared at his friend.

"You're a genius." He remarked sarcastically, chuckling slightly. Odd gave his famous smile.

"You're going with Yumi, I'm going with Tina, Jeremie's going with Aelita…" Ulrich rolled his eyes.

"What's your point, Odd?" Ulrich asked coldly, his tone changing at the mention of his sister's name.

"What's the problem with me and Tina?" Odd raised, his voice icy too.

"Nothing!" Ulrich insisted, throwing up his hands and leaning back into the couch. Odd stared at him for a moment before standing up and leaving the room, muttering under his breath about trust and friendship.

* * *

Her lamp was on, her iPod speakers blasting with music, her desk meant for homework covered with makeup instead and Tina as busily curling her hair getting ready for the ball. Her brand new red cocktail dress was hanging up on her wardrobe doorknob waiting to be worn and her new silver heels that cost much more than she should have spent on them were sitting innocently on the floor underneath the dress, again waiting to be worn.

Glancing at her bedside clock and swearing under her breath, Tina realised she only had 15 minutes before the start of the ball to finish getting ready. She did not like the sound of knocking on her dorm door either. Spraying her now-curly hair with hairspray, she answered the door, to see the smiling face of a suited-up Odd.

"You're early." She greeted as she noticed Aelita standing behind him. Waving briefly at her, she shut the door on them, hastily pulling on her dress and shoes, then opening the door again.

"I'm done! Let's go!" She announced, linking arms with both Aelita and Odd and walking towards the gym. They were not the first there, and there was another five more minutes before the gym's doors opened and everyone was let in. Instead, the trio met up with Ulrich and Jeremie, who were waiting at the gate for Yumi's arrival. Tina took in how wonderful everyone looked in their outfits; Jeremie, Odd and Ulrich's tuxedos and Aelita's gorgeous light pink dress. Smiling broadly, Ulrich noticed Yumi walking up the street in her own black gown, and blushed profusely.

"_This must be the first time everybody's happy." _Aelita thought as she giggled, linking arms with the others and walking up to the gym's doors. It was not a lie either. The stony silence and awkwardness of everyone being around Tina together had magically worn off for the night, proven by Tina happily complimenting Yumi's stunning dress and Yumi beaming back at her. Striding through the gym's doors, the group gazed at the beautiful scene.

The room's walls had been covered with spotless white sheets, making it seem much larger than it was. Several large tables stood in front of the doors, set with more immaculate white tablecloths and gleaming silverware. Fake snow covered the edges of the stage and a dazzling white grand piano stood on top, also covered with it. A vast Christmas tree stood in the corner, filled with coloured lights and baubles, as well as the customary star on the top. Tina was the first to snap back to reality as she heard a shrill voice calling her name. Turning around to see the caller, despite already recognising the voice, Tina winced in empathetic embarrassment as she saw Sissi running towards her and the group. Sissi's dress was a canary yellow, puffy and tutu like. Sequins covered it, to match the sequins in her headband.

"Tina! When are you going to start singing?" She excitedly asked, clasping her hands together and sighing dramatically. Tina rolled her eyes, however unnoticed by Sissi.  
"Soon, darling!" She answered, mocking Sissi's voice in an attempt for her to leave. This again went unnoticed by Sissi.

"Please, make it soon! Do you like my dress? Yours is gorgeous!" Sissi adoringly commented, Tina's mouth opening somewhat idiotically as she searched for words that could describe Sissi's dress kindly.

"Thanks…I love yours…it's so…bright." Tina mentioned, putting on her sugar-sweet smile as she did. The others pulled her along to the table with their names marked on them, where they dropped their bags and began to enjoy the loud music playing in the gym. Tina was soon pulled onto stage by Mr. Delmas, much to the cheers by the students. After Mr. Delmas's speech about Christmas, dinner and the fore coming night, Tina moved the microphone to the stand next to the piano and sat down on the chair, briefly playing a couple of notes on it as she introduced herself…not that it was needed.

"Um, hi guys. I hope you all have had an awesome term and that you enjoy tonight. I'm going to sing a piano version of one of my songs, I haven't played the piano in a long time…" she rambled, earning mumbles of surprise and sarcasm form her crowd. "Anyways, this is a kinda romantic song…so you guys can dance if you want. What's a better way to start a ball? OK!" She continued, placing her hands and fingers on the notes of the grand piano.

A slow and light melody was released from the open grand piano, as Tina played the keys lightly and with passion. In front of the stage, couples began to band together to dance, including Aelita and Jeremie, as well as a blushing Yumi and Ulrich, much to Sissi's loathing.

"_I'm going home_

_You can't keep me here_

_I'm saying goodbye for all of time_

_I'll find a way_

_My spirit's guiding me_

_All along, I'll fight to be free"_

Tina closed her eyes briefly as she hit the high notes, but obviously enjoyed performing her song. Couples in front of her continued dancing, earning a smile from the singer. Noticing Odd in the crowd of the partner-less students at the back near the tables, she beamed warmly at him, and he beamed back, giving Tina a flying sensation in her stomach. Nothing was to worry about.

"_Never forget, you were born under the morning star_

_On this side of the night_

_She's there, she's waiting for you_

_Come tell me the mystery of love_

_Of love-_

_Never forget your destiny"_

After Tina had finished performing a few more songs she bowed out for the night, letting the gym's speakers take over music duty. Walking down the stairs from the stage to the cheers from her fellow students, Tina fell straight into a tight hug from Odd, then Ulrich, congratulating her on her performance. Aelita, Jeremie and Yumi smiled kindly at her and the group enjoyed themselves on the packed dancefloor, as the school's students jumped and sang together in rhythm to _I Gotta Feeling. _Soon enough, everybody settled in at their tables for dinner. The table closest to the stage, the one that the gang sat at, also included students who Tina was quite friendly with, including Emily, Heidi, Theo, Naomi, Romain and Paul. As the table sat down once again after filling their plates from the buffet of chestnut-stuffed turkey, oysters, Yule Log and crepes, Tina raised her glass.

"In America, we toast on occasions like this. I can't remember doing this back at home, though. I wish to honour the importance of friendship, love and kindness. Everyone on this table has shown me that from the minute I arrived in Kadic, and I thank you. Santé!" She credited, ignoring the smirks and coughs coming from her brother and Jeremie. Clinking their glasses filled with sodas and soft drink together, the table dug into their Christmas feast. Nobody saw the irritated face of Sissi from the table next to their own as they happily ate, laughed and conversed over the lovely dinner.

Following the meal, the students returned to the dancefloor in couples, dancing slowly to the protracted tune playing from the various speakers around the room. Next to Jeremie and Aelita and Odd and Tina, Yumi and Ulrich gracefully spun around the floor, both smiling extremely happily at the fact that they were dancing together. At the close of the song, both were looking deep into each other's eyes, neither paying attention to anything besides each other as their heads and lips slowly came nearer to contact of each other, a Christmas kiss…

"Ulrich! Yumi!" Tina shrieked, breaking the romantic moment and causing them to stare at her. Before they could do anything, Tina grabbed both of their arms and pulled them off the dancefloor and out of the gym, following Aelita, Jeremie and Odd, away from the hundreds of XANA-possessed students. Realising this, they soon broke free of Tina's grasp, running without her "help". The six ran down the tunnel towards the sewers, Aelita, Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi grabbing their respective scooters and skateboards, not remembering that Tina did not have one of her own.

"Guys?" she whispered as she saw Yumi speed away on her skateboard, her black gown flowing out behind her in what would have been a beautiful, in any other moment, scene. Tina spun around and gasped as she saw the shadows of the possessed drawing closer and ran for it following the sewers, her silver heels making a deafening noise on the part-metal, part-concrete sewer floor. Taking the same turns she had when Yumi had taken her to the factory the last time, Tina tried to near it, only to be stopped by XANA-Sissi. Seeing her, Tina tripped and fell over, the expensive heel snapping and sending her sprawling across the floor and inches from plunging into the disgusting sewer water. Looking up into the face of her fan, the last thing Tina saw before collapsing into unconsciousness was Sissi's hand shooting electricity into her face.

Usually descending down the ropes towards the elevator in the factory would be easy for Yumi and Aelita, but Christmas ball dresses made it difficult. Attempting to pull down the dresses threatening to fly up as they swung down to the floor below, the two giggled as the landed on the floor, the heels that they were wearing only just supporting their quick and hard landing on the floor of the elevator. As Jeremie punched in the down button on the elevator, Ulrich and Odd snickered at the girls and their dresses, earning a death glare from both.

"Wait, where's Tina?" Jeremie asked, looking around the elevator. This quickly dawned on Ulrich.

"She was right behind us. Without her on Lyoko…" He stammered, angrily hitting the wall of the elevator with his fist. "She's in huge danger."

"It would be better to deactivate that tower first then." Jeremie announced. "But…we don't know which one is which." he realised. Ulrich punched the wall again as the elevator doors opened at the lab.

"Get to Lyoko. I'll figure it out." Jeremie said, trying to console Ulrich. He stayed silent. Aelita pushed the elevator button again and sent the four down to the scanners. Upstairs, Jeremie typed rapidly on the computer.

"Ladies first." He said into the microphone. "Transfer Yumi, transfer Aelita. Scanner Yumi, scanner Aelita. Virtualisation!" He added, pressing the 'enter' button on the keyboard.

On Lyoko, two bodies "materialised" out of nowhere in the shape of Yumi and Aelita, dropping them to the ground. Ulrich and Odd landed also within seconds. The Desert Sector was surprisingly quiet, and the activated tower was unguarded. Aelita, seeing this, ran for it, only to be shot by XANA-Tina's arrow, who had been hiding behind a boulder close to the tower. The arrow was extremely powerful, Aelita guessing that it took off at least 30 life points already. Following Lyoko instinct, Odd shot at the perpetrator, forgetting that it would hurt Tina. Hitting her arms and leg, XANA-Tina crouched over in pain, losing 20 life points according to the supercomputer.

"Odd, stop! You're killing Tina!" Jeremie yelled through the microphone onto Lyoko. Odd was soon hit by XANA-Tina's arrow too.

On the floor of the sewers, surrounded by suited-up students who used to be her friends, Tina's eyes burst open in pain as three deep cuts opened up on her arms and leg, blood pouring rapidly from them.

"_Please, guys. Deactivate that tower soon." _She thought before falling unconscious once more in a pool of her own blood.

* * *

_**Thanks for all those reviews, guys. Keep it up!**_

_**Another cliffhanger…with Tina dying from her friend's weapons…what will happen?**_

_**Review to find out!**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_

**EDIT/UPDATE (5/6/11): the lyrics are taken from **_**"Destiny" **_**by Zephyr – finally discovered the name of the song.**


	8. Home

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

_**----------**_

As two more of XANA-Tina's arrows fired from her black and red crossbow at him, Ulrich ran in Supersprint to refuge behind a large boulder of the Desert sector, sword in hand.

"Where _is _she?" He mumbled under his breath, loud enough for only him to hear, but Yumi, who was standing right next to him, to understand.

"She will be fine once we deactivate this tower, Ulrich." she replied coolly, "Just stay focused on this." Yumi added as she ran from behind the boulder and threw her fans at XANA-Tina. Aelita sprinted towards the tower as she did. The fans caught the monster off-guard, but XANA-Tina still managed to shoot at Aelita. Gasping and falling over in pain, Aelita half-crawled, half-ran to the tower, welcoming the lit up bullseye inside as a haven.

Approaching the middle, she began levitating to the top storey of the tower, as a somewhat transparent touch screen illuminated before her. Placing her hand on the screen and the tower recognising her, Aelita typed in the Lyoko code, and the hundreds of computer displays fell around her. Aelita sighed in relief, hoping that this was the tower that controlled the virus on Tina.

Back on Lyoko, Ulrich, Odd and Yumi watched intently for XANA-Tina to blow up or be destroyed, meaning that Tina was slightly safer. She didn't. All three being hit with her arrows, XANA-Tina smiled slightly as she saw the pain she had inflicted on them. Jeremie's voice soon came from the sky once again.

"Guys, that was the other tower that XANA activated!" Ulrich rolled his eyes in frustration.

"We know that, Einstien." He replied coldly, pulling out his blade, ready to fight. Odd scanned their surroundings.

"Which way?"

"To the south!" Jeremie's voice rang through the sector, as the four Lyoko warriors watched XANA-Tina run off at a very high speed, even for Lyoko. "Follow XANA-Tina! She's going towards it." Yumi stored her fans and turned to the others.

"We have to get there before she does! Take Aelita, Ulrich." She said, motioning for Ulrich to pick Aelita up. Ulrich did so, and nodded.

"Supersprint!" He yelled, running after XANA-Tina at the speed of light. Odd tapped his chin.

"Isn't that like in some kind of movie…like involving someone who is now in a vampire romance movie…" he teased, earning a punch on the arm from Yumi.

"Shut up, Odd." She reacted, running after Ulrich and Aelita.

Sissi's eyes began fluttering as something liquid touched her face. Opening her eyes and wondering what it was, she saw the sight of her idol and fellow students all lying on the floor of the sewers, unconscious. Rushing over to Tina and turning her over onto her back, she saw the various cuts, bruises and stabs that Tina had sustained mysteriously. There was nothing around the sewers that could cause that. Following human instinct, she pulled her mobile out of her purse and dialed emergency, hastily repeating what happened and where she was. Remembering what she had seen in every action or drama movie she had watched recently, Sissi began using her hands to stem the flowing blood from the cuts on Tina as she waited for an ambulance. Feeling pressure being put on her, Tina's own eyes opened, recognizing Sissi in the blackness and gasping for air to grab her attention.

"Tina! How did this happen? No, don't answer that, save your energy. The ambulance is coming, just hold on until the professionals get here." Tina shook her head weakly and heavily breathed in.

"No." she coughed, noticing the loss of blood. "I need to get to the factory. The factory is the only place to go." Sissi stared at her friend and idol.

"Factory?" Tina coughed once more, cringing at the pain it brought her.

"Call Jeremie."

"Jeremie?" Sissi questioned as the heard the manhole being opened a few metres away.

"He's there. He knows what to do." She added, seeing the paramedics running towards her and Sissi, noticing all the other unconscious students on the floor near the two skeptically. Tina opened her mouth to speak to the two paramedics as they radioed their situation to the ambulance. Nodding when asked and telling the female paramedic her name and her basics, like age, Tina screamed suddenly and clutched her side, as her skin ripped itself apart and blood began flowing out of it. The paramedic stared in shock as she witnessed the bizarre sight of the sudden invisible weapon hurting the young girl.

Ulrich felt horrible, sick and dizzy as he thought of the pain his sister would be going through on Earth at that moment as XANA-Tina fell to the ground, grabbing her side in pain and yelling furiously at him. He smiled slightly as he noticed that Aelita wasn't far from the red tower as he glanced back at the monster impersonating Tina. She seemed to be recovering from the slash he had created by his weapon's blade quite quickly. Kicking her crossbow far away from her, Ulrich stood next to the monster, half-protecting her from more damage and making sure she couldn't place any more damage on him. This failed however as XANA-Tina swung her leg against his calves, knocking Ulrich over and telekinetically calling her crossbow back to her. Aiming at his chest, she fired, devirtualising him. Aelita looked over her shoulder as she ran towards the tower, seeing XANA-Tina race after her. Generating an Energy Field, she threw the ball of power at the pursuer, missing. She sighed in relief as she saw Yumi and Odd running behind XANA-Tina.

"Laser Arrows!" Odd yelled as he shot two of his darts towards the monster, of either side of her. Yumi accompanied the arrows as she threw her fans at XANA-Tina too, hitting the backs of her legs. Jeremie's voice soon rang out from the sky.

"XANA-Tina only has 10 life points left! Don't hit her!" He yelled urgently as his fingers flew across the keyboard back on Earth.

"It's OK, Jeremie." Aelita replied as she dived into the tower and tumbled into the middle, levitating up to the second level for the second time that day. "I'm in the tower." She added as the lit-up screen materialized in front of her and she placed her hand on it. Entering the Lyoko code, the tower soon turned to the neutral white, and XANA-Tina blasted apart into the tiny squares of data. Inside the computer lab, Jeremie loaded up the return-to-the-past program, and soon tapped the enter key.

"Return to the past, now!" He said as the huge white orb swallowed himself, the factory, the sewers, the world and Lyoko.

-----

"I hate almost dying." Tina remarked as the group once again watched her be pulled up the stairs to the stage during the Christmas Ball. For some reason, the night lacked the excitement it had the first time around, most likely due to the fact that the gang had already done anything they were supposed to do at a ball the first time. One thing that hadn't changed however, giving a sense of peace and happiness to Aelita, was the kindness and cheerfulness of the group, especially how Yumi and Tina seemed to be getting along. As Tina sang her song once again, Yumi and Ulrich resumed where they had left off before she had interrupted their moment last time. Blushing after their sweet Christmas kiss, Ulrich and Yumi's hands never left each other's for the remainder of the night, much to the annoyance and fury of Sissi and to the amusement of Odd and Tina.

The night ended on a much happier note than the previous one had, Ulrich walking Yumi home, Jeremie and Aelita sharing a romantic evening discussing codes and physics in Jeremie's bedroom and Odd and Tina exchanging Christmas gifts to one another and sharing their last night before the holidays together. It was almost midnight when Jim walked around to all the dorms of Kadic, interrupting many students' starry-eyed moments and threatening them with detention for breaking the no-girls-in-boy's-dorm-rooms-or-vice-versa rule that to many, made no sense at all. Tina reluctantly left her brother and boyfriend's dorm and returned to her own room to sleep, wondering what going home the next day would be like.

The next morning happened rather fast for the Lyoko gang. There were no classes, but breakfast was held late and many students were being picked up at lunchtime, giving them a limited period of time to pack for going home for the holidays. Aelita was organised to stay with Jeremie's family, much to the delight of Jeremie, Ulrich and Tina were going back home together, Odd was returning to his five sisters at his home and Yumi was staying at her own, as she usually did. Tina' iPod speakers were blasting music (as usual) in the background as she packed her makeup and clothes into their respective bags. A quick knock at the door startled her, causing her to drop the various tops she was holding to the floor, but she relaxed after realising it was just her brother.

"Mum just called. They're going to be here in 15 minutes." He said, closing the door after him once Tina nodded in understanding. Hurrying her packing slightly, she was done within 10 minutes and rolled her suitcase towards the stairs as she ran into Yumi, Odd and Ulrich, who were walking up the stairs. Odd, Ulrich and Tina smiled at each other, but she and Yumi shared an icy glare at one another, not saying a word. Ulrich and Odd stopped, seeing this, as Yumi continued walking off towards Jeremie's dorm. Odd shook his head in confusion.

"Girls! How do they do that?" He observed, shaking his head faster as he tried to comprehend it.

"How do they do what, Odd?" Ulrich questioned, watching Yumi walk off. Odd snapped his fingers to gain Ulrich's attention.

"That! Especially Yumi and Tina. Last night they were the best of friends, and now…" He commented, waving his hands in the general direction of the two girls who were walking opposite ways. Ulrich shook his head.

"I don't know. I doubt we ever will." He replied as he raced off in the same direction as Yumi, realising that he had to meet his parents soon. Odd understood. To Ulrich's parents, the only thing worse than Ulrich's report card was him being late for them to discuss it.

-----

The emerald-coloured car door slammed shut as Mr. Stern, Ulrich and Tina's father, stepped out the vehicle with an emotionless face and arms crossed. Tina smiled brightly at him as she rushed down the footpath, suitcase trailing behind her and was pulled into a hug by him. He patted her back as he let go of the hug, taking his daughter's suitcase and placing it in the trunk of the car. Embracing her mother and beaming at her too, the three Sterns seemed to be ready to go, until Ulrich joined them. Mr. Stern's attitude suddenly changed.

"Ulrich." He greeted coldly as he held his hand out for his son's bag. Ulrich and Tina exchanged looks at the change in atmosphere and smiled supportively at each other.

"Nice to see you too." He replied, somewhat sarcastically as he turned his back on the older adult and waved goodbye to Aelita, Jeremie, Odd and Yumi, who were waiting and watching a few metres away.

"Don't you turn your back on me!" Ulrich's father snapped, anger contorting his face. He glared at Ulrich's friends as he pushed his son inside the car and closed the door on him. He turned to Tina, who was standing on the other side of the car and smiled.

"All ready to go, Ti?" He asked brightly, shocking Ulrich with the mood swing. Tina grinned back (unbeknownst to her parents, yet obvious to almost everybody else to be sarcastic) and nodded.

"I'm just saying bye to my friends." She replied, waving and yelling to the gang as she settled into the car. Mr. Stern realised who she was referring to as her "friends" as he sat on the driver's seat and banged the door shut once again.

"You mean to say, darling, that your friends are the same good-for-nothings that Ulrich is friends with?" He said, trying to keep calm as he drove through the streets of Kadic by gripping the steering wheel tightly. Tina smiled apologetically at Ulrich and turned to her father.

"They're not bad, Papa. They're very nice." She answered.

"That they may be, but they're the reason that your brother is failing school." He said, again trying to keep sweet with his "baby" daughter. Tina crossed her arms.

"No, Papa. The reason he is failing school isn't them. It's you!" She replied, raising her voice. Hearing this, Mr. Stern suddenly floored the brakes, making everybody in the car fall forward.

"What did you say, Valentina?" He asked, making every word seem like a new sentence with his anger. Tina knew that she'd struck a nerve. Nobody ever called her by her full name.

"You heard me. It's you and you high standards and pressure which is making Ulrich act this way." She continued, regardless of what argument she was getting herself into. Mr. Stern gripped the steering wheel even tighter, causing her mother to give her a look as if to say "just give up". She didn't however. Tina was sick of the tension in her family.

"The reason I did so well in school in America is because I had a chance to fail and learn from my mistakes and try something new, Papa. You weren't there yelling at me to do better in something I knew I couldn't! Just because Ulrich's soccer team got cut doesn't mean that he now has to get straight A's in everything instead! Just let us make our own mistakes and be the best in something we want to do!" She yelled. The car was silent for a while. Mr. Stern drew in a deep breath.

"Valentina Stern, if you wish to stay in America, you better get rid of this disgusting attitude that your brother has obviously placed upon you and act like you should. A polite, well-versed, young girl." He roared back, turning the car violently into the street their house was on and sending Tina almost flying across the back seat. Tina crossed her arms and death glared the mirror, where she could see her father's raging eyes. Ulrich rolled his own eyes and looked out the window.

"Well this is going to be a very merry Christmas." He said sarcastically.

_**----------**_

_**Guys, please don't make me go back to threatening to get reviews.**_

_**I love writing this, but I am not going to if I don't get any reviews. Sorry.**_

_**Anyways, I apologise for my tardiness on updating, the last week of school is always hectic.**_

_**Review for more!**_

_**Merry Christmas!**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	9. Electricity

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

_**----------**_

Kadic Junior High's large campus grounds were completely covered with white, fluffy snow. Its building roofs were frosty and many hundreds of icicles dangled elegantly from the gutters. The street leading up to it was icy and slippery, giving many returning students a hard time attempting to pull their suitcases and bags out of the trunk without falling over on the impromptu ice rink. Both of the Stern siblings were exceptionally happy to return to the campus, out of the clutches of their parents, namely their father. Christmas for them had been surprisingly wonderful, since their grandparents had visited for the day, causing Mr. Stern to actually be nice to Ulrich. It had also been a white Christmas, snow lightly falling in the morning, giving a picturesque scene of the two teenagers smiling like little children enthusiastically ripping off paper to their various presents from friends and family. As the car slowed to a standstill directly in front of the gate, Ulrich smiled remembering the best Christmas he had had in many years as his father violently slammed the driver's seat door and opened the trunk. Tina stepped out of the car and barely saved herself from hitting the ground after slipping on the road. Her father noticed this and immediately rushed to her side.

"Tina! Are you OK? Is anything hurting?" He asked as he helped her up. Tina smiled sweetly.

"No, Papa. I'm fine." She answered in an equally-sweet voice while she watched Ulrich fall over himself and her father glare at him as if it were his own fault. Tina pulled on her winter coat and pulled her suitcase out of the trunk, along with her several other bags for makeup, sports and classes. Waving their (specifically, Tina's) goodbyes to family, the two walked up the path towards the dorms. It was fairly early, and very few students had arrived back yet, but the campus was usually deserted until the last few hours of "official" holidays anyway. Inside the dorm building was very warm, and Ulrich and Tina could hear yells of "hello" flying across the upper floors of the structure as they walked up the stairs and pulled their suitcases behind them. Walking down the boy's dorm corridor, the siblings ran into Jeremie and Aelita, who, naturally, were the first two returning students to campus. They looked extremely happy. Tina dropped the bags she was carrying to hug Aelita.

"How were your holidays?" Aelita asked as she picked up two of Tina's bags and accompanied her to her dorm. A breeze of chilly air blew into the girls' faces as Tina opened her dorm room door.

"Oh fine. I got some work done, realised how biased my family is, that kinda thing." Tina replied as she dumped her suitcase on her bed and began sorting out her clothes. Aelita stared at her.

"How are they biased?" She queried, sitting down on Tina's bed and watching her put away her possessions.

"Oh, you know how families are." Tina said, waving her hands carelessly at Aelita. She didn't notice the sad smile that crossed Aelita's face.

"Yeah…But Jeremie has some great news. Over the holidays we were working on finding a way to get information about XANA-Tina. Instead, we found the program that XANA uses to create monsters." Aelita declared, her face brightening up in realisation. Tina stopped what she was doing and stared at her pink-haired friend. She wondered if Aelita was being serious or not.

-----

The factory was extremely cold due to lack of inhabitance since the beginning of the holidays. All five of the gang in the elevator were shivering as the elevator doors opened and the group entered the computer lab. Yumi had joined them on their trip to the factory, but Odd was not returning to school for another couple of days, much to the dismay of Tina and happiness of Ulrich. He had two nights of decent sleep without Odd playing away at his GameBoy all night and keeping him up. As Jeremie jumped into the computer lab's chair and Aelita sat on the arm of it, watching over his shoulder. Yumi, Ulrich and Tina all leant against the wall across the room, just waiting and watching. Jeremie's fingers flew rapidly across the keyboard as he opened up the command prompt and began hacking into XANA's monster-creating program. The factory and computer lab were silent, the only noise being the taps of the keyboard and the faint melody blasting out of the iPod Ulrich and Tina were sharing. The computer suddenly started beeping, startling the three leaning against the wall, as well as Aelita. Motioning for the others to join him and Aelita, Jeremie continued typing on the keyboard swiftly as he explained what he was doing.

"We found this program during the holidays. It was embedded in the information that was in the tower XANA activated to create XANA-Tina. It is the program he uses to virtualise monsters onto Lyoko." Yumi raised an eyebrow as Ulrich furrowed his own.

"We already knew that, Jeremie." he commented, watching the numerous lines of 1's and 0's fly across the screen.

"Well, what you don't know is that I've added a virus into this program, stopping him from creating monsters." Jeremie replied proudly, ceasing typing and grinning at Ulrich and the others. "There is no way he can defend the towers he act–" he added, as the computer suddenly started beeping, cutting him off. Glancing at the monitor, the group saw the superscan discovering two activated towers. Jeremie smiled and chuckled.

"XANA's not on his game today. He's made this easy for us." He declared, as he turned back to the others. "I'll send you to Lyoko. With this virus in place and most of us here, this should be trouble-free." He watched his four friends run towards the elevator and hit the 'down' button, preparing for the oncoming "battle". As the elevator's heavy doors opened once again, the four teenagers walked into the centre of the room, in the middle of the space between the three scanners.

"Ladies first!" Jeremie's voice said from the upper floor of the factory. Yumi, Aelita and Tina each stepped into the scanner closest to them. The airtight walls soon closed in around them.

"Transfer Yumi. Transfer Aelita. Transfer Tina. Scanners. Virtualisation!" An incredible bright light swept through each scanner and continued the usual transportation to Lyoko. In the Mountain Sector however, on Lyoko, only one body began "materializing". Tina's.

Back in the factory, Ulrich watched as all three scanner's walls opened again and Yumi and Aelita walking out, looking suspicious. Tina did not.

"Jeremie, what is going on?" Ulrich yelled, loud enough for his friend to hear one storey above.

"Must have been a bug. Only Tina was virtualised. I'll try again. She seems OK." He replied into his microphone, his voice blasting out of the somewhat invisible speakers of the scanner room. Ulrich sighed and stepped into the scanner his sister had been in moments before.

"Transfer Yumi. Transfer Aelita. Transfer Ulrich." He said, his fingers flying across the keyboard as they always did. "Scanner." he added, pressing the enter button. "Virtualisation."

Inside the scanner room, bright lights from each scanner blew out into the room, the scanner's walls opening and letting the occupants out. Yumi, Aelita and Ulrich were not on Lyoko.

-----

The Mountain Sector was eerily quiet, the only sounds being of a soft breeze sweeping through the purple land and Tina's virtual sandals hitting the rocky platform as she paced around in circles, waiting for the others. Virtualisation took much longer than she remembered it to.

"Jeremie?" She called into the sky. Tina had heard nothing since she landed on Lyoko, and she wasn't taking that as a good sign. "Jeremie?" She screamed again.

Back on Earth, the supercomputer's mainframe began beeping rapidly as the three would-be-on-Lyoko-ers once again entered the computer lab. Jeremie was hastily typing on the keyboard, trying to find out what was going on. The computer began beeping deafeningly and so rapidly that it was almost unbearable.

"Jeremie, what is going on?!" Aelita shouted, barley able to hear herself over the noise. Jeremie's eyes never left the screen.

"I don't know. Tina's on Lyoko, XANA's programming an anti-virus on the virus I put on his monster-program, you're here…" he bellowed back, shutting off the speakers to the mainframe. Everybody's ears remained ringing even after the factory became quiet once more. Jeremie continued typing as Ulrich punched the wall in anger and Yumi and Aelita stared over the genius's shoulder. Suddenly, the elevator's heavy metal doors opened once again and a polymorphic clone of a large, muscular man stepped out, aiming the enormous jet of electricity straight at the computer's mainframe. Aelita pulled Jeremie out of the way just in time, falling heavily onto the hard floor and hitting their shoulders and heads firmly. Ulrich ran up behind him and aimed a spinning kick at the clone's side, only for his leg to be grasped tightly and thrown across the room. Yumi cried out his name and punched the clone, her hand going right through it, but still obviously affecting it. Jeremie and Aelita scrambled and crawled out of the way as another jet of currents flew and sparked across the room, hitting all three monitors of the mainframe and short-circuiting the computer. The lucky two who escaped stared in shock, worried and anxious about their friend trapped in the virtual world. Without the mainframe in use, she wouldn't be able to return to the scanners.

-----

Tina's virtual shoes made quick and short clanks as she jogged down the barrier-less path between two massive purple boulders. She stopped suddenly as she heard the familiar sound of pixels generating to create another life form on Lyoko. Spinning around and staring at where the sound came from, she watched in curiosity and amazement as a body a similar size to herself revealed itself in the sky and soon dropped from it, landing perfectly on its feet on the path.

"_Thank God. Jeremie, you are a genius!" _She thought, sighing in relief and waiting for whoever was virtualized to join and protect her. However, it was not someone she wanted to see. XANA-Tina was staring and smirking right back at her, like an alter-ego of herself. She hated the thought of that. Following human instinct, she ran full speed down the path, towards the shelter of the virtual trees and boulders of the spur-of-the-moment sanctuary. Two arrows shot at her back, but she managed to dodge them, much to the amazement of both herself and XANA-Tina. Rolling behind a boulder, Tina noticed a large tower in front of her, looking exactly the same as the ones Aelita constantly went into. Breathing in and out heavily as she scanned the area behind the boulder, where XANA-Tina was waiting patiently, Tina sprinted towards the tower, not worrying about the risk of being shot by the monster's arrows.

Electricity swarmed through the thick cables running around the computer lab, almost shocking all four of teenagers in the room. Luckily, they evaded it and ran into the middle of the room, taking refuge behind the broken holographic projector. The only sounds were the sparks from the cables, since the insistent beeping from the mainframe had been shut off by Jeremie. Because of this, the usual notice of someone entering a tower was not heard, but fortunately seen by Aelita.

"Jeremie!" She called, tapping him on the shoulder to grab his attention. Following Aelita's gaze towards the smashed, but still working, screens of the mainframe, Jeremie noticed the tower-deactivation program running on the computer. The polymorphic clone melted into a heap and descended to the lower floor, where the actual supercomputer was. They had little time left. Jeremie grabbed the microphone and placed it near his mouth.

"Tina! The code is "Lyoko"." He yelled into the microphone, catching Tina, inside the tower on Lyoko, off-guard.

"Code?" Her voice asked as it came through the speakers, simultaneously with the other three in the room.

"It isn't all over." Jeremie explained, subsiding his worried friends. "I am sure that Tina can deactivate towers too." He said, turning back to the computer and typing on the keyboard which was now covered in shards of glass.

"Quickly, Tina. Otherwise it is all over! The code is "Lyoko"!" He bellowed as the factory shook violently. The supercomputer wasn't going to last much longer.

The screen that had lit up before her and confused her beforehand seemed so simple now to Tina as she placed her hand on it. Recognising her, the tower asked the familiar request for the code.

"_L-Y-O-K-O." _Tina thought, the tower somehow hearing her thoughts and typing them onto the screen. The hundreds of illuminated screens fell around her and the tower became dark.

Back on Earth, Jeremie's fingers were bloody and cut, but he had to finish the program. Although the polymorphic clone was gone, the supercomputer was still dying thanks to it.

"Return to the past, now!" he yelled as light flew out of the factory and gulped everything in it's path.

_**----------**_

_**1-3 reviews and now 10?! Guys, that is unbelievable, thank you! Please keep it up.**_

_**The plot thickens more, and the stakes seem to be higher now….somewhat.**_

_**Please review! It means a lot, plus more reviews equals quicker updates….hopefully.**_

_**Merry Christmas!**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	10. Realisations

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

_**----------**_

The factory was once again eerily quiet as the five teenagers swung down the ropes to the bottom floor near the elevator. The return-to-the-past had not taken them far back, only an hour at the most, but it still was tiring, at least for Tina, for she was not used to the time-traveling like the rest of the group. Jeremie had insisted that the Lyoko gang should go back to the computer lab so he could figure out more about XANA-Tina. There was no way that Ulrich would let Jeremie put the same program that bugged up the first time around on the computer again, since the XANA attack had been quite frightening. The heavy metal doors slammed shut and the elevator began descending underground, where the lab and scanners were, as Ulrich's phone began buzzing the familiar, unique tone announcing a call from Odd.

"What the _hell_ just happened?" Odd greeted through the phone once Ulrich had pressed the "accept" and speakerphone button. Yumi laughed.

"Nice to hear from you too, Odd." She replied somewhat sarcastically as the elevator pulled to a stop at the lab's floor. Aelita and Jeremie ran over to the computer mainframe, closely followed by the other three. Jeremie quickly started up the computer and typed as Aelita watched over his shoulder, just like the first time around. Tina giggled at the sight.

"What are you guys doing _this _time?" She asked, walking over to the two genii, "not trying to kill me again are we?" she added lightly, causing the two to look at her quite upsettingly. Tina soon realised her mistake.

"Oh, no guys, I didn't mean it like that!" she corrected, gushing over them. Aelita sighed and waved her off, leading Tina to walk back over to Ulrich, Yumi and the voice of Odd. They were explaining what had happened on Lyoko and the return-to-the-past. Odd was obviously surprised and annoyed that they didn't tell him, until Ulrich pointed out that he was in another country.

"Oh yeah!" He said, laughing at his own silliness, "But make sure XANA doesn't activate another tower until I get back in two days!" The three laughed together as the computer mainframe began beeping behind them.

"Sorry, Odd," Ulrich hastily said as he grabbed the phone off Yumi, who was holding it, "we'll call you back."

"Wait, wha-" Odd questioned as Ulrich ended the call.

"Einstein, what's going on?" Ulrich asked, making his way over to see the various monitors.

"I have found many data streams with encryptions that may give us a way to destroy XANA-Tina once and for all." Jeremie replied, not stopping typing to talk to him. Tina sighed warily.

"That's like what you said _last_ time, Jeremie. I'm sick of all these false alarms." She mentioned, rubbing her eyes at the sudden change of lighting from the dark room to the heavily lit screen.

"Well this time it is different, Tina." Aelita added, the mediator she always was. "This data can be turned into a multi-agent program, something that can both destroy XANA-Tina and prevent XANA from using your DNA again. You'd be safe." Tina's eyes widened with realisation at the word "safe".  
"Really? No more almost dying?" She cited, raising her voice slightly with excitement. Both the genii nodded again, making Ulrich smile also.

"I'm writing the program now." Jeremie stated as he inserted a blank disc into the computer and began typing and encrypting. "Should be done in an hour or so." Aelita waved goodbye to the three.

"You guys go have some rest, I'll stay here and help." She said, as the elevator doors opened and Ulrich, Yumi and Tina stepped in. Yumi hit the 'up' button and the elevator began ascending to the ground floor.

"Can you believe it, you guys? This program means the end of XANA-Tina!" Tina repeated excitedly, now becoming more annoying and seemingly selfish the more she repeated it.

"That _doesn't _mean the end of XANA though. Your life will still be at risk." Yumi cautioned coolly as she listened to Tina ramble on about a world without danger.

"But XANA-Tina is obviously more powerful than his other monsters." Tina remarked, as the three of them stepped out of the elevator and began climbing up the ropes to the floor of the bridge. Yumi gaped at her 'friend'.

"I wouldn't count on that, Valentina." She snapped, using Tina's full name to get some attention from her. Tina glared at her.

"It's either Tina or nothing, Yumi. Nobody calls me Valentina except authority."

"And I'm not authority?" Yumi replied, knowing that that would seriously agitate Tina. Tina stopped walking and spun around to face Yumi.

"No! Sure as hell not! If anything I am, even if it's just this moment, more important than you. Are you just jealous of me being a higher priority at this time?" Tina yelled storming up to Yumi and getting in her face.

"Why would I be jealous of being in life-threatening danger?" Yumi asked her, not raising her voice or losing her cool like Tina had. Tina couldn't think of a reply to this. She just slapped Yumi hard across the face. A red hand imprint stayed on Yumi's cheek as Tina stared at her, expecting her to retaliate. But she didn't.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Tina screamed, stamping off toward the manhole to the sewers, without Yumi and until now, silent brother. Ulrich stayed with Yumi, glaring at his sister and her outburst.

"Yumi, are you OK?" he asked, placing his palm lightly where Tina had slapped her. Yumi pulled her head away and smiled at him.

"It's nothing. Tina has to realise that the world doesn't revolve around her." She remarked as the two descended the ladder to the sewers.

"She doesn't usually act like that…" Ulrich started, as him and Yumi walked through the sewers, for their skateboards where at the opposite end.

"But do you see why I don't trust her? One minute she's fine and the next she's a selfish brat."

"That doesn't explain why you don't trust her. It barely explains why you don't like her." Ulrich justified.

"She's just not the type of person I can get along with. Is that so bad?" Ulrich sighed.

"Yeah, I know she's a bit weird, but she's my sister. Regardless, she is my little sister, and I have to protect her." Yumi stayed quiet, there was nothing else to say, really.

-----

The rest of the day was fairly dull, since the majority of students hadn't arrived back yet. The recreation room was the busiest spot on campus, for it was the only place that you could do anything. Ulrich and Yumi strolled into the room together, hoping to find Tina there, but she wasn't. Ulrich guessed she was sulking in her room, but didn't want to check and be yelled at. He sighed as he followed Yumi to the large couch in front of the TV, which was playing the first _Harry Potter_ movie with subtitles. The station never seemed to put on the French-speaking version. They sat in silence, watching the movie until Yumi's phone buzzed with a call from Jeremie. She stood up off the couch and motioned for Ulrich to follow her as she walked out of the bustling room, where it was quieter outdoors.

"Yes, Jeremie?"

"Yumi, get Tina and Ulrich to the factory. We have something we should probably show you."

-----

For the third time that day (if you included the times before the return-to-the-past), Ulrich, Yumi and Tina swung down the ropes onto the lower floor of the factory. It was still freakishly quiet, but the excitement of Jeremie finishing his program or finding something new seemed to sweep away those scary thoughts. The elevator made a considerable racket compared to the silence of the building, but that didn't really change the atmosphere either. The elevator doors opened and the trio stepped into the computer lab, walking over to the mainframe where Jeremie and Aelita were sitting.

"Guys, there's good news and bad news. Which first?" Jeremie declared, quite quickly due to excitement.

"Good!" Tina replied cheerily, with as much enthusiasm as a very happy toddler.

"Good news is that the multi-agent program is finished. We just have to run it and it's goodbye XANA-Tina." Jeremie stated, causing Tina to squeal in delight and beam.

"Bad news is that the program requires the power of tower deactivation through Lyoko to run. It also needs the power of Way Towers to work." Jeremie added, not understanding Tina's still joyous expression after he said that. He soon realised why.

"Tina, a Way Tower is a tower on Lyoko that sends you from one sector to another, there are four of them." Jeremie explained, staring her straight in the eye.

"So?" Tina asked skeptically.

"It means, Tina, that we have a problem." Yumi translated from behind where she was standing.

"This program needs to have the four Way Towers on Lyoko deactivated simultaneously manually, Tina." Aelita cut in, "Our group does not have four people who can deactivate towers on Lyoko." She finished.

-----

The Lyoko Warriors were stuck. Four towers, but only two people. Inducting another person into the group was out of the question, they wouldn't be able to deactivate towers anyway. There was no program in the world that could give others the power to deactivate towers, and it gave the group the most odd feeling. They had the program that could save Tina right in their hands, only they could not use it. It was like fate or karma teaching them a lesson.

It had been three days since the discovery and creation of the multi-agent program. Classes had gone back to normal, term had started, the school was once again populated and Odd was back on campus. He had, naturally, been filled in on everything that had happened, only telling him had left out the heavy sense of anxiety the rest of the group felt.

Usually double Science was a fun subject for Jeremie and Aelita, one of their favourites and best. However, the worry and general annoyance of this dilemma made enjoying it hard. Mrs. Hertz continued rambling on as the class sat bored at the science tables, books and notepads out, but mostly whispering to one another about their holiday break. The week's subject was DNA, something that Jeremie found fascinating, considering its importance in the supercomputer and Lyoko. Despite this, nothing really caught his interest until Sissi raised her hand to ask a question.

"Mrs. Hertz, would identical twins have the same DNA?" She asked, her shrill and incredibly annoying voice breaking many students out of their boredom. Sissi _never _asked questions in Science.

"Why, yes Elizabeth, I believe they do. Because identical twins, unlike fraternal twins or normal siblings come from the female's same fertilized egg, it means they have the exact same DNA, or at least close enough that you, or a computer cannot tell the difference between them. Fraternal twins, or normal siblings however, share about, or anywhere above, 50% of the same DNA, providing that the siblings are from the same mother and father." Jeremie's head snapped up.

"Mrs. Hertz?" He asked, not bothering to put his hand up, "based on the DNA, could a computer tell if two DNA sampled from different places, such as a hair strand and blood came from siblings?" Mrs. Hertz nodded.

"The computer would tell that the DNA is the same, or at least some of it is, and record that. Then it would most likely assume that they are siblings, like we would. That is how they do DNA tests or paternity tests." She replied, not noticing how Aelita's face immediately brightened up with realisation. She quickly scrawled a note on a piece of paper and sleathly passed it to Ulrich and Odd's shared desk, then Tina's.

_Factory. Lunch. We've found another person to deactivate the tower._

-----

"Who?" Tina asked Aelita as the six Lyoko Warriors ran through the campus grounds towards the manhole to the sewers. Aelita laughed at her seemingly silly friend.

"Weren't you listening in Science? About DNA? And siblings?" She asked at her dumbfounded friend. Tina stared at her confused. Aelita kept laughing. Yumi leant down and pulled open the cover, then climbed down the ladder, followed by Ulrich, Odd, Jeremie, Tina and Aelita. The Jeremie, Aelita and Yumi grabbed their scooters and skateboards, letting the other three run since Tina didn't have one. Ulrich, Odd and Tina instead began an unofficial race to the elevator, soon catching up the three on vehicles. Ulrich was the first to climb up the ladder to the bridge, but Odd and Tina eventually beat him into the elevator, swinging their ropes straight across the gap and landing in the elevator, not worrying about the obvious unsafety. The two laughed as Ulrich eventually got the elevator, closely followed by Yumi, Jeremie and Aelita. The elevator quickly dropped to the lower floor as Jeremie hurriedly explained what was going on.

"The towers that create XANA-Tina and put the virus on Tina use her DNA to do that, as we already figured out. Her DNA is therefore in the tower, which is why she can deactivate the towers that affect her, since her DNA is in it, much like Aelita's connection to Lyoko and her creativity ability on Lyoko. Ulrich can deactivate towers because he shares DNA with his sister." Aelita nodded in agreement as she turned to the other four and as Jeremie began rapidly typing on the computer, much to the confusion of the rest. Aelita guessed he was checking his calculations.

"But, didn't you hear Hertz? Siblings share 50% only!" Odd pointed out. Jeremie shook his head.

"That shouldn't be a problem. It's the fact that they share some that makes a difference." He mentioned, continuing typing on the keyboard. Yumi clapped her hands.

"So? What's the big deal? We still need one more person." She reminded the group, dampening their attitudes slightly. Aelita clicked her fingers in comprehension.

"Jeremie, if XANA-Tina is created by Tina's DNA, wouldn't she be able to deactivate towers?" She asked, snapping her head to face Jeremie. He didn't stop what he was doing.

"Like XANA-Tina would do that. That's kinda suicide, Aelita." He denoted. Aelita shook her head, despite Jeremie not noticing.

"But we could possess her, like XANA possesses people here. We managed to make Odd a spectre, why couldn't we do this?" She asked, as the supercomputer began beeping. Everyone recognised the announcement that accompanied it. Jeremie swore.

"XANA activated two towers. Everybody get to Lyoko!" He yelled. "I have a feeling this is going to be the final battle." He muttered to himself as he watched his friends all climb down the ladder towards the scanner room, which was quicker than taking the elevator. He flexed his fingers before he began typing rapidly again.

"XANA, you're a dead man." He declared.

_**----------**_

_**So, things are certainly getting intense and interesting…**_

_**Only a couple of chapters left…please review to get them quicker!**_

_**Come on guys, 9 then 3 reviews? I know you guys can do them if you put your mind to it!**_

_**Please? The review button is begging to be pressed!**_

_**Thanks!**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	11. War

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

_**----------**_

Tina's light-weight virtual dress billowed out around her as she landed on the Forest Sector's terrain. Odd landed next to her, on 'all paws', living up to his costume, and beamed at her. He was her protection detail until one of them found XANA-Tina, or rather, she found them. Ulrich had been virtualised with Yumi in the Ice Sector, and Aelita by herself in the Mountain, much to Jeremie's irritation, and XANA-Tina would take care of the Desert Sector, or at least the gang hoped so. Tina and Odd hid and pushed their backs into the trunks of two trees on either side of the sector's path. The area was quiet, too quiet for Odd's liking as he scanned all of the Sector he could see, looking for an abnormality. XANA had activated two towers, and if he followed the protocol he usually did, one would be for creating XANA-Tina and the other to possess someone or something to attack anyone in the factory on Earth. The slight hum of the pixels recolouring and forming themselves together nearby perked him up. XANA-Tina was coming for them. Yelling for Tina to move, Odd dived out of the way, narrowly missing the red and black thorny arrow that belonged to the doppelganger. Getting onto his feet at once, he ran towards her, aiming his arrows at XANA-Tina's legs and arms, so it wouldn't harm her life points as much. One hit the target, and XANA-Tina fell to the ground, sliding across the virtual landscape right to Odd's feet. Kicking her crossbow away from her to Tina, Odd pinned the now-paralyzed XANA-Tina to the ground, placing his foot on her chest so she couldn't move. Once the paralyzing from being hit wore off and she could move again, XANA-Tina squirmed under Odd's foot and reached for her crossbow, only to realise she didn't have it. Jeremie's voice came through the sky right on cue.

"Guys! I've finished the possessing program! It's been implanted in both Odd's and Tina's arrows!" he said excitedly, leaving the two on Lyoko to grin at each other as they shot XANA-Tina simultaneously, causing Tina to yelp. They had forgotten that the arrows would still affect her own life points. XANA-Tina screamed in pain but soon calmed down, leaving Odd to remove his foot from her chest and let her stand, which she did. Tina handed back her crossbow and XANA-turned-Jeremie-Tina bowed as she gratefully took it, shooting a practice arrow as if to make sure they didn't sabotage it. Once she was sure, she stood to attention in front of Odd and Tina, awaiting her orders. Odd and Tina gaped at her, shocked that Jeremie's program worked so well. Odd cleared his throat.

"You," he said to XANA-Tina, pointing at her to make it clear, "are going to the Desert Sector with me." He ordered, surprised again when XANA/Jeremie-Tina nodded in understanding.

-----

The Ice Sector was freezing, as usual, for Yumi and Ulrich, who had been assigned by Jeremie to take care of that sector's Way Tower. The Ice Barrier had been deserted until numerous meshes and pixels gathered together moments after the two had been virtualised. XANA was sending in his not-as-indestructible creatures, Bloks. There were well over twenty of them between the two warriors and the Way Tower. Yumi and Ulrich ducked behind a glacier, hoping the huge group of Bloks hadn't seen them. Bloks were relatively stupid creatures, compared to the Scypozoa, but they were hard to fight, especially in big numbers.

"Jeremie?" Yumi called into the sky, "We need vehicles." She requested, opening and closing her fans impatiently. Back in the factory, Jeremie didn't break his typing streak as he swapped voice channels to the Ice Sector.

"Yumi, I'm sorry, but you'll have to go without. The possession and multi-agents programs take too much energy so I can't program the vehicles. That's why we need the tower deactivation in the first place!" He replied, still typing. Yumi groaned as a laser flew just past the edge of the glacier. The Bloks had spotted them.

"We're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way." She told Ulrich as she ran out from the refuge of the glacier and threw one of her fans at the Blok closest to her, using the other for shield. Slicing the bull's-eye symbol, the Blok exploded, some of its body armour hitting others of its kind. Ulrich ran in SuperSprint towards the next Blok, throwing his sword into the XANA logo on it. It missed.

"_This is not good."_ Yumi thought as she used her fans to shield more lasers from the enemies.

-----

A large flock of Hornets flew through the Mountain Sector's sky as Aelita dashed through the purple sector's various pathways and namesake's mountains. She wasn't far from the sector's Way Tower, much like everyone else, but the vast number of Hornets was situated between her and that tower made things hard. There was no way she would get through without huge life point damage from the Hornets. Concealing herself inside one of the mountain's caves, she wondered what she could do.

"_Jeremie,"_ she thought, knowing if she yelled out the Hornets would hear her and attack, "_how close are you to finishing this program?"_ Back in the factory, Jeremie's earpiece picked up Aelita's message and linked him to it. Opening up the computer window showing the mountainous sector, Jeremie gasped. XANA had never put that many monsters in one spot, ever. He obviously knew this would be a huge battle too.

"I'm done, Aelita. I'm working on this multi-agent program now. Odd and XANA-Tina are going to the Desert Sector as we speak." He replied, but in the back of his mind, he worriedly speculated himself. The possession program was in place, but could be easily thwarted by XANA merely deactivating his own tower. Jeremie anxiously hoped XANA hadn't thought of this.

-----

Odd and XANA/Jeremie-Tina hurriedly ran through the Forest Sector, closely followed by Tina, towards the Way Tower. It was the only way to get to the Way Tower in the Desert, and was much quicker. They would be at the Desert Sector's Way Tower instantly. A large burst of energy however, stopped them. The three turned around and soon saw the two large Megatanks rolling towards them. Their energy wasn't aimed at the two Lyoko Warriors however; it was aimed at XANA/Jeremie-Tina. XANA had realised that his Tina had been possessed, and if he couldn't get her back, he was going to destroy her himself. Odd pushed XANA/Jeremie-Tina out of the way and took the Megatank's energy blow straight to his chest, using his body as a barrier. Tina could hear Jeremie's yell through the sky as she witnessed it herself.

"Odd, what are you doing?! You just lost 50 life points!" He screamed urgently as XANA-Tina blocked the second Megatank's attack with her crossbow. It seemed to work as shield, probably one XANA gave her so she couldn't be hit by her own team.

"_Maybe she isn't as helpless as I thought…" _Tina said to herself as she vaulted out of the way of yet another blow from the Megatanks. Odd ran on all-fours, feline-like and grabbed her hand, pulling her away and running towards the Way Tower. They weren't far from it. Pushing her further towards the tower, Odd ran back towards the two pursuers and shot several arrows at each. One had obviously hit and the Megatank exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere in several metres radius and hitting all three Lyoko Warriors.

"All of you just lost 30 life points, Odd! You're supposed to be their protection detail, what the hell are you doing?" He roared through the microphone and continued typing hastily, but pushing harder on the keys, creating the program that would defeat XANA-Tina, provided his friends got to the towers before being devirtualised. Odd clenched his fists after hearing Jeremie's outburst.

"Einstein, you're not the one here. Why don't _you_ be protection detail for these two and see how _you_ go." He retorted breathlessly, as he ran just behind the two girls to the safety of the tower. Another burst from the Megatanks shot out just to the right of the trio and they dove into the Way Tower. Odd got to his feet immediately and leapt off the platform, pulling XANA-Tina behind him, falling into the Desert Sector's Way Tower with a thud. The computer mainframe back in the factory beeped in announcement of the two Way Towers being inhabited.

"Two down, two to go." Jeremie mumbled to himself as he switched voice channels once again.

-----

Every time either Yumi or Ulrich destroyed a Blok there seemed to be twice as many. They were getting absolutely nowhere. Yumi threw her tessan fan towards an oncoming Blok and missed, getting hit for what felt like the hundredth time. Jeremie's groan resonated through the sky.

"What are you guys doing? Having a picnic? Tina and XANA-Tina are already in their towers!" Jeremie affirmed, his message being slightly hard to hear from the taps of the keyboard that continued through it. Yumi gritted her teeth as she looked up at sky annoyed.

"Sorry, Jeremie." She said sarcastically as she used both of her fans to deflect the lasers coming at her. She looked over to Ulrich, who was closer to the tower, but surrounded by Bloks. He too, was not doing well. Yumi sprinted towards him and threw her fans a one of the Bloks who was charging a laser at him. Cutting through the XANA symbol, the Blok detonated and flew fragments of its shell over the ice plain and the warriors. Ulrich used the light from the explosion as a cover to Triplicate and charge towards the group of three Bloks directly in front of him, the clones and his own swords hitting the middle of the bull's-eye and obliterating the monsters. There were still fifteen or so Bloks, but Yumi had a feeling that neither of them had many life points left.

"Jeremie?" She called, carrying on with deflecting lasers, "Life points?" she asked, and both knew what she meant.

"Yumi, you have 40, Ulrich has 50." Jeremie replied, a hint of urgency on his voice. Ulrich stopped for a moment to catch his breath with the news. Karma, naturally, made sure he was shot right then. Jeremie smiled, amused, despite the exigency of the situation.

"Made that 40 each." He corrected. Yumi stood by what she had thought throughout the battle. It was not going well.

-----

"Energy Field!" Aelita called as a pink ball of kinetic energy formed in her hand. Closing her eyes and setting her voice box in motion, Aelita sang out a high-pitched note and the ball of energy expanded, thinning out and consuming her. A small white glow generated around her as she kept her eyes shut, standing up off her knees and walking out from behind the refuge of the cave in the Mountain Sector. She took no notice of the Hornets and their lasers shooting at her shield as she strode to the Way Tower. Her life points and her energy lowered steadily as she kept her concentration on the shield, but this was not unusual. Aelita's creativity ability, like Yumi's telekinesis, used up her energy and life points, making her tired and weak. But the use of the power, however, was worth it. The lasers continued hitting the shield and sending ripples spreading over it, but Aelita went on focusing her mind on the protection, making sure not to be distracted until she entered the Way Tower. Jeremie's voice in the sky, however, came at the wrong time.

"Aelita, what are you doing? You have 35 life points left!" Aelita's eyes shot open and broke her concentration, leaving her Energy Field shield to disintegrate instantly. Aelita gasped and ran from the lasers, jumping and dodging them as she sprinted the last few metres to the safety of the tower. Two lasers landed on her arm, leading her to cry out in pain as she lunged through the tower's thick walls and onto the bullseye-shaped platform. She however, was not completely safe. The tower began shaking as if an earthquake had hit it, sending Aelita flying side to side. The Hornets were attacking the tower, and the tower was not immune to the shots.

-----

The Forest Sector was continuously being illuminated in red and pink light as Megatank's bursts of power quavered the tower, penetrating the thin layer of shield of it and throwing Tina, who was inside it, across the platforms. It was obvious that the tower was not going to last long. Tina shrieked as she fell to the ground, landing on top of her bow with a clank. Closing her eyes, she hoped and prayed that the others would be in their own towers soon. Meanwhile, Odd paced up and down the XANA eye platform restlessly. XANA/Jeremie-Tina sat and watched him, incredibly interested and child-like, with a small smile on her face. She seemed to know what was coming when, or if, Jeremie finished the multi-agent program, but that didn't stop her innocent behavior. The peacefulness and serenity of the tower soon disappeared as the Desert Sector Way Tower began shaking violently, propelling Odd into XANA/Jeremie-Tina, landing on top of her and his face inches from his girlfriend's look-a-like. Remembering the situation and losing the grin that had covered his face, Odd stood up embarrassed and tried to gain his balance as the tower continued to quake aggressively.

"Einstein?" He asked, looking up to the higher parts of the tower, "how long is this program going to take?"

-----

Jeremie's fingers never left the mainframe's keyboard as he hurriedly added in programming commands onto the file and searched for a copy of XANA-Tina's avatar. This was some of the most physical exercise he had gotten, since he always skipped out in Phys Ed, and the genius puffed as he continued typing, attempting to finish the program soon. The heavy metal elevator doors opened, sending a somewhat deafening noise compared to the stillness of the factory and made Jeremie turn to see what it was. Nobody had been devirtualised yet. Unfortunately, it was not a friendly face staring back at him. An armed police officer with eyes glowing with the XANA symbol stared back at him. Having barely enough time to duck, the officer sent a jolt of electricity right at the computer mainframe from his hand, only succeeding in switching off the holographic projector next to it. He tried again as Jeremie crawled towards a large wooden board that lay on the ground near him to defend himself with. The program was missing only its finishing touches.

-----

As more Bloks shot simultaneously at them, Ulrich and Yumi leapt over the lasers aimed at them and landed on two of the Bloks, slicing the bull's-eyes. The battle had moved closer to the tower, and despite this neither of them had risked running to it. Yumi decided that there was no choice now but to do so. The others were most likely at their own towers by now. Calling out Ulrich's name urgently, Yumi sprinted to the tower, deflecting lasers with her fans as she ran. Two metres from the tower, a sudden shot hit her unprotected back, devirtualising her. Ulrich threw his sword at the Hornet that had shot her as he ran in SuperSprint straight into the tower's haven. All four tower deactivaters were now waiting for the multi-agent program that would end this battle.

-----

Jeremie slid himself across the floor of the factory towards the computer chair. Another burst of electricity flew across the room at Jeremie, missing him by centimetres as he hid behind the chair's single leg. Pulling the microphone and earpiece off the keyboard and hitting the 'enter' key, Jeremie set the program online, placing the earpiece in his ear as the XANA-fied police officer gave up with the electricity and pulled out his gun.

"Guys!" he yelled into the earpiece, knowing the gunshots in the background would be earsplitting for his friends on Lyoko, "The program is in place! Hurry up!" The elevator doors opened behind him and Yumi ran out, pushing the officer into the wall and causing him to drop his weapon. Jeremie pulled himself into the computer chair and brushed away the glass on the keyboard.

"Quickly!"

-----

On Lyoko, all four teens stepped onto the middle point of the platform and rose to the top, lightly landing on the second storey. Placing their hands on the screen that lit up before them, Ulrich, Tina, Aelita and XANA-Tina simultaneously thought of the code, which typed itself onto the screen. The hundreds of similar monitors that hung around the tower's walls fell into darkness, along with the rest of Lyoko. The virtual world was pitch black as every single one of the warriors strode out of their respective towers, their eyes unable to adjust to the lack of light. Aelita looked around desperately, wondering if something had gone wrong. One thing was for sure, XANA's monsters were still around, but also weak to the darkness. Lasers flew at her as she ran behind the tower, the only place that they wouldn't be able to find her at due to the dark.

After a few moments of anxious silence, hundreds of white lights rose up from the void underneath the Desert Sector and swarmed towards XANA-Tina, who too was standing out and glancing around for help and directions from Odd. The lights swallowed up XANA-Tina, and soon Odd could not see her red and black outfit anymore, for it had been replaced by white light. The white light brightened and shrank a little, only to destroy XANA-Tina in a large explosion. The white light widened and seemed to explode itself, swallowing up everything in its path, and sending everything on the virtual world flying due to its force. The pixels that formed Ulrich, Tina, Aelita and Odd burst themselves apart and devirtualised them, sending them back on the rollercoaster between the virtual and real world.

-----

The police officer's eyes returned to normal and fell to the ground, unconscious, on the floor of the factory. Yumi pulled herself back to her feet by hanging onto the wall and half-walked, half-limped towards the computer mainframe and the chair. Jeremie was still typing on the keyboard, by much more slowly and carefully.

"Did-did it work?" She asked, hearing the scanners one level below hum and open its walls, bringing her friends back to earth. Jeremie stared at the monitor for a while, but turned to Yumi and stared her in the eyes.

"Yeah, it did." He clarified, taking in a breath and sighing, "We won."

_**----------**_

_**Did everyone like? If so, or even if you didn't, please review. There's only one more chapter to go now, so make it count!**_

_**Thanks for the reviews up until now guys, they've been awesome, so keep it up!**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	12. Farewell

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

_**----------**_

"So it's really over?" Tina asked for the tenth or eleventh time as the gang strode out of the factory's elevator, making their way back to the school campus. Everyone was tired, and luckily, there were no more classes for the day, it was a Saturday. Yumi rolled her eyes at Tina's annoying question.

"Yes, it's over. XANA-Tina is no longer a threat." She clarified, despite the fact that Tina already knew the answer far too well. Tina beamed as she started skipping across to the ropes, obviously joyous over the triumph of the battle. Ulrich grinned at his sister's happiness as he started pulling himself up the rope next to the one she was on.

"You think XANA will do something similar again?" Aelita questioned as she waited for a chance to scale the ropes herself. Jeremie pushed his glasses up his nose and shook his head.

"I doubt it." He replied confidently, "now that both he and we know that we can thwart it, I don't think he'll try again." Tina, Ulrich, Odd and Yumi reached the top of the ropes and jumped onto the upper platform, giving Jeremie and Aelita the ropes to climb themselves. "However," he added, raising a finger at Aelita as he held onto the rope to steady it, "I believe that a multi-agent program similar to, but much more powerful, the one that destroyed XANA-Tina could actually defeat XANA for good." Aelita smiled at her friend as she crossed her boots over the rope and began ascending the cable. Once on the platform, Aelita ran to catch up with the others, who were already at the manhole cover at the other end of the bridge, they hadn't bothered to wait for her. Normally she would be irritated, but the relief and cheerfulness of the situation seemed to lighten and solve everything. For the first time since the Christmas Ball, it seemed everything would be all right again.

-----

XANA had been exceptionally quiet for four and a half weeks after the 'Battle of Tina', as Odd had entitled it. He had gone into hiding, and, at least as Jeremie thought, that was not particularly a good sign. The four and half weeks were comparatively boring to the exciting battle on Lyoko. Classes were still the same for the Lyoko Warriors, and the regular trips to the factory still in place. Tina's dance troupe had been accepted into a school's creative arts festival in the coming month, meaning that the Lyoko gang and Ulrich didn't see much of their new member, but the friendship was all the same, with the occasional fights and disagreements, mostly between the siblings.

In the late hours of a Sunday morning, the only day with no classes at all, Ulrich had taken the rare chance to sleep in, repaying the amount of hours he had lost during the various journeys to the factory. It was past 11am by the time he had gotten out of bed and had a morning shower, a first for him with Odd well beating him to both. He passed Tina's dorm room after his shower and heard the usual pop music blasting out of her iPod speakers on her desk. Wondering if he should visit her and with his hand centimeters from the wooden door to knock, the door rapidly swung open and Tina burst out, almost knocking her brother over in the process. She looked up at the face of her would-be-victim and soon recognised her own brother.

"Ul-Ulrich!" She stuttered, trying to find words as she caught her breath from shock. Ulrich smiled at his sister, and lightly pushed her back into her dorm room, where she quickly shut off the music so they could hear one another. After a few moments of silence, both tried to start speaking at the same time. Naturally, Tina continued over the top of her brother.

"I was just going to look for you." She stated as she stopped leaning against the desk and walked over to Ulrich, sitting next to him on her bed. "You're up late." She added, a hint of surprise in her tone. Ulrich rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled.

"It's Sunday. I deserve a sleep-in." He justified, "However, I think this is the latest I've slept in." Tina laughed along with him, but soon stopped, shaking her head.

"I don't think you remember Aunt June's wedding." She recalled, giggling again when she saw her brother's confused look, "When you mistook Papa's vodka for water." She added in, daydreaming and reminiscing. Ulrich rubbed his head as he dredged up the memory.

"I don't think my butt felt the same for a month after that." He added, causing Tina to give a look of disgust.

"_Way_ too much information there, Ulrich." She replied, waving a hand at him and standing up off the bed, "I meant the fact you slept for about 22 hours straight after." Tina recapped, opening up her wardrobe doors and pulling out the suitcase. Ulrich looked puzzled at his sister.

"What are you doing?" He inquired, following her movements and stopping her from placing the open suitcase on the bed. It soon dawned on him without Tina having to tell him. "You're not leaving _now_?!" He added, just wanting pure clarification. Tina threw her arms around her brother's neck and pulled him into a hug.

"My manager had called about a week ago, but my phone's been out of battery for about a fortnight. They're releasing my album two months early." She explained, "My flight back to LA leaves in six hours. I have to go." She told him, pulling out of the embrace and turning back to her empty suitcase. Ulrich sat back down on the bed.

"I don't believe this." He exclaimed, shaking his head in disbelief. "How are you going to get out of school so easily? What about the others? You can't just pack up and leave!" Tina sighed and sat next to him.

"Says the person who didn't want me here in the first place." She reminded him with a light-hearted grin. Ulrich looked his sister in the eye, easily telling her he wanted a 'real' answer.

"Mr. Delmas already knows. Mama and Papa have been left a message at home. I told Aelita when I ran into her at the showers, she's told Yumi and Jeremie. Odd just left before you got here." She recited, her eyes looking upward as she recollected. Ulrich's head snapped up at the mention of Odd knowing before him.

"What was Odd doing here?!" He asked, raising his voice higher than he intended. Tina smiled mischievously and laughed.

"What the hell do _you_ think?" She retaliated, not exactly needing an answer. Ulrich stared gob-smacked for a moment before recovering and returning to earth. He really needed to get his head out of the bedroom. Tina beamed at him, but soon the smile faltered and she returned to her packing.

"I should really finish up with this." She decided, motioning towards the mess and piles of clothes around the room. Ulrich reluctantly nodded and stood up to leave.

"Ulrich!" Tina called, as he placed his hand on the doorknob and turned it. He didn't turn around. "Did you really think I'd stay forever anyways?" She asked, more rhetorical than an actual question needing an answer. She ran up to her brother and gradually wrapped her arms around his neck, much like she had in the cafeteria when she had first come to Kadic.

"I'm sorry, Ulrich. I really am."

-----

Word had quickly spread that Tina was leaving, and after Ulrich had left her dorm room, he had almost been knocked over again by Tina's fans wanting to say goodbye personally. By 2o'clock everything was ready and Tina's car was waiting at the front gate. Walking along the path, suitcase rolling behind her and carrying the many makeup and other carry-on bags, Tina followed Ulrich, Odd, Aelita, Jeremie and Yumi. She had been surprised that Yumi had even come to say goodbye, but figured the others must have convinced her. Tina and Ulrich loaded the suitcases and bags into the car and the driver handed her the tickets and boarding passes. She squealed when she saw "Business Class" on the tickets. The trunk door slammed shut and the driver motioned for the last goodbyes to be quick; it was quite a fair way to Charles De Gualle Airport and they were already running late.

Ulrich watched as Tina went along the line of students wishing their farewells, rolling his eyes as he saw Tina hug Emily, Sissi and Heidi for the fiftieth time and hear them talk excitedly about her album and how normal she is again. Soon she was up to Odd. Ulrich wondered if they were keeping with the relationship or not, being on the opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean and all. He guessed that they weren't, seeing them hug for a long time and not kiss at all…even to annoy him. Tina pulled Jeremie and Aelita into a hug, telling them to do great things and defeat XANA, as well as trying to convince them to warn her every time they're going to return-to-the-past.

"I'm in LA. I'm not dead. I should still get it." She remarked, referring to the returns-to-the-past. Nodding and smiling at Yumi, Tina soon got to Ulrich, the last person in the line. Giving his sister a huge bear hug, Ulrich tried not to cry as he heard Odd remark on the irony of it, comparing it to when Tina had first come to Kadic. They soon let go and Tina walked to the car, stepping in and lowering the window so she could yell out as the car sped off. The car was well at the opposite end of the street before she stopped yelling and waving, and them being returned by other students. The crowd stood quiet for a while before breaking up into the usual groups. Ulrich stood at the gate and watched as the car turned and drove out of sight. He heard someone walking up and turned to see, almost crashing into Yumi. The two blushed for a moment, and an awkward silence fell over them. The others were a fair way away on a bench under the trees. Yumi sighed and crossed her arms, watching the road like Ulrich.

"Do you think she'll ever come back?" She asked, her voice emotionless and her face neutral. Ulrich turned and looked at her in surprise, but let go of it.

"Tina? She's my annoying little sister!" He exclaimed, causing Yumi to look at him confusedly. "Of course she will." He answered with a smile. Yumi's face remained neutral as she walked back to the others on the bench, leaving Ulrich free to return to the dorms. Upon reentering his room, Ulrich sat on his bed and lay down across it, noticing something shining into his eye lying on the pillow. He picked up the CD case and opened it, reading the marker pen scribbled onto it in Tina's handwriting. Ulrich obliged to the instructions and placed it in his CD player on his desk, pressing the 'play' button and lying back on his bed, arms behind his head and staring up to the ceiling.

"_Hi, Ulrich." _The recorded CD played. It was Tina's voice, naturally. Ulrich knew she would've done something like this. Tina had a flair for dramatic and extravagant entrances and exits. _"Just have a listen to this. I wrote it while I was here."_ The voice continued as a slow melody on the piano through the speakers.

"_Listen to the lyrics." _Tina's voice added, as the melody quickened and she began singing. Ulrich took notice of the lyrics, as per Tina's instructions, and grinned to himself as he understood them.

"_There is a world that is virtual and different_

_It can be so cold, makes us stand up for what's right_

_Our hope through our life, is if we reset it to the start_

_Here we are, going far, to save all that we love_

_If we give what we've got, we will make it through_

_Here we are, like a star, shining bright on your world, today_

_Make evil go away!_

_Code Lyoko; we'll reset it all_

_Code Lyoko; be there when you call_

_Code Lyoko; we will stand real tall_

_Code Lyoko; stronger after all"_

_**----------**_

_**Fin.**_

_**Thank you to everybody to faved this and reviewed and generally gave any support and help. Please review this chapter too! :P**_

_**Thanks again, I love you guys!**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


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